


"lift 






?B^ 



<L 



<Ls s 






I '<: « 



. 



«3GC 5 






l| LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, i 



• <x< A 




■' CC ^- i 


• 


<3^«£ 






4 

< 
4 
< 


- 




; cc 




< 




<<< 


. 






4£JJ 






UNSTED STATES OF AMEi 





















«: <s<c 






.<CL 



c ^ 






c c .... <^ V 



' <',, <^ < ' 















-^ ( r>t ; fe^ 



r<"-« s •-*£■ A^ < 



E 



« <$ 



cc <■■ -- " 



' 



<srcc«c 



<*£ Cl .<- 









<IL 


«!,,.. 


<n 


^C 


^: 


: v <r ■■ 


^c 


<c 


<n 


■ <c 


<c 


•: <£ 


<SL 


: ■■:<£.. < 


<t 


\ <c . * 


< 


> r <r-" * 


<x 


<c 






<c 


c 5 


c 
c 


C ^ 


c 




c 


. <. " ^ 


' /*' : 


<^ irff^" 



^"<X.*aC> :cc. 



<rc^'~ ■ C: . ( 

























MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



REFORMATION OF ENGLAND % 

IN TWO PARTS. 



THE WHOLE COLLECTED 



CHIEFLY FROM ACTS OF PARLIAMENT 



AND 



PROTESTANT HISTORIANS. 



BY CONSTANTIUS ARCH^IOPMLUS. 



** Tho' Truth and Falsehood seem like twins ally'd, 
There ! s eldership on Truth's delightful side. 
'Twere wrong to sleep, or headlong run astray; 
It is not wand' ring, to inquire the way." 



Hontiotu 

Printed and published by 
KEATING AND BROWN, 

18, Bufee-streel, Grosvcnor-square, and 63, Pater-naster-row. 

1826. 

OS 



4 6 



•CONTENTS. . 

PART I. 

HENRY VIII. 

Page 
Introduction • 1 

§ 1. The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey • -His Speech to the King's Commissi- 
oners upon being arrested* 'Reflections upon it, and the Cardinal'sPlea 3 
.§ 2. How the Clergy were drawn into a Praemunire and fined- 'Foreign 
Universities bribed to declare for the Divorce- -The King assumes the 
title of Supreme Head of the Church of England "This title acknow- 
ledged by the Clergy with a limitation 8 

§ 3. Cromwell advanced to the dignity of the King's Vicar-General in 
Spirituals- -Mr. Salmon's mistakes caused by his implicit faith in Bp. 
Burnet "King Henry discovers the cruelty of his temper* 'Puts to 
death the old Catholics and the new Gospellers promiscuously "And 
why-'Abstract of his six famous Articles of Religion • Mr. Fuller's 
character of King Henry VIII. 11 

§ 4. A short view of some of the most remarkable Acts of Parliament, 
upon which the King's Supremacy was established 15 

§ 5. A recapitulation of K. Henry's Spiritual Powers and Prerogatives 

Reflections upon them- -Bp. Bramhall's Objections answered 19 

§ 6. K. Richard the Second's famous Statute of Praemunire- 'Remarks 
upon it • * 22. 

EDWARD VI. 

§ 7* K.Edward VI. succeeds his Father" His minority is abused, to 
the prejudice of the Church, and his Conscience is unserviceably di- 
rected • • Dr. Heylin's Character of K. Edward's Parliament "Mr. 
Collier admits the truth of it* -The Doctor dates the commencement 
of the Reformation from the beginning of this reign "Mr. Fuller's 
whimsical account of the rise and progress of Nonconformity, or 
Puritanism 29 

§8. Some account of the Dissolution of the Bishopric of Durham • •«• 33 

QUEEN MARY. 

§ 9. Queen Mary disclaims the Supremacy, and reconciles the nation 
to the See of Rome, by its Representatives ia Parliament* 'Cardinal 
Pole, in quality of the Pope's Legate, absolves them from all Ecclesi- 
astical Censures 35 

§ 10. Queen Mary displaces the Edwardian Intruders, and restores the 
Catholic Bishops to their respective Sees- -A short Character of King 
Edward's Bishops "Tne Dissolution-Act of the Bishopric of Durham 

is repealed • • The Preamble to that Act 37 

§ 11. Animadversions on the supposititious Martyrs of this reign- -They 
suffered not on account of Religion only : witness their treasonable 

• Prayers and seditious Books 4 1 

§ 1 2. A specimen of the spirit of Mr. Strype's imprisoned Saints 44 

§, 13. The deplorable Catastrophe of Repingdon Abbey Church --How 
and by whom the Abbey Lands were secured to their respective Gran- 
tees or Purchasers* • • • • 45 

A 



IV CONTENTS. 

Page 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

§ 14. Elizabeth, in her first Parliament, reclaims the Supremacy, but 
changes the title of Supreme Head into that of Supreme Governor 
of the Church* «A political finesse, but no abatement of her Father's 
Supreme Power Ecclesiastical- • Her Supremacy is opposed by theCath. 
Prelates and party* • She publishes her Admonition- 'Reflections upon 
it, and the change of the Supremacy Title- • Mr. Tilney's Case, &c. • • 48 

§ 15. Some account of the High Commission Court, and the Use that 
was made of it in Q, Elizabeth's reign- • Mr. Collier's Observations 
upon it 54 

§ 16. The lamentable consequences of Q. Elizabeth's Supremacy- • 
Some instances of her burning Heretics, and other Executions of Pro* 
testant Dissenters, are recounted • * * 57 

§ 17. Mr. Collier's Account of a sanguinary Paper presented to Q. 
Elizabeth by the House of Commons, wherein slje is petitioned to dis- 
patch the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots - 62 

§ 18. The difference of Q. Elizabeth's behaviour towards the Catholics 
and Puritans 64 

§ 19. Conclusion of the first Part •...,*., 67 



Appendix to the First Part. 
No. 

I. Part of Pope Clement VII.'s Letter to K. Henry VIII. * « * 73 

$. A dissuasive Harangue of a Privy Counsellor, favourable to the 

Papal Authority ib. 

3. Extract of a Discourse concerning the Royal Supreme Power Eccle- 
siastical, which Mr. Collier tells us he found in the Paper Office, &c. 75 

4. An Act for the repeal of two several Acts made in the time of K. 
Edward VI. touching the Dissolution of the Bishopric of Durham • • 77 

5. Archbishop Heath's, Bishop Scot's, and Abbot Feckenham's 
Speeches against Q. Elizabeth's Supremacy, and the new Liturgy, or 
Book of Common Prayer, with some Account of the Speakers • 78 

6. An Abstract of K. Henry VIII.'s Injunctions to his Clergy, published 

in 1539 •' 106 

7. A Taste of the Mala Dogmata 107 

8. A short Abridgment of K. Henry's Articles of Religion • 109 

9. Distich from Mercantius 112. 

10. Extract of Cardinal Pole's Bull of Dispensation, as far as it relates 

to the new Bishoprics, Hospitals, &c. erected by K. Henry VIII. • • ib.. 

II. Chanteries and Free Chapels, what ? • • • 113 

12. Mr. D.'s disingenuous Quotation of the genuine Words of Mr: 
Collier ib. 

13. An instance of Stephen Marshall's frantic Zeal. for the Good Old 
Cause 1 15 

14. Smectymnuus explained •••• •••• ib. 

1$. A Copy of K. Henry VIII.'s last Will and Testament, as far as it 

regards Religious Matters * 117 

16. K. Henry VIII.'s last Speech to his Parliament, with some short Re- 
flections upon it * 121 

17. Cranmer's Ordination Faculties, extracted out of his Commission 126- 

18. The Rubric ib. 

19. Bp. Burnet's Account of the singular Opinions of Cranmer about 
Ecclesiastical Functions and Offices, . * • • • .....♦.....*•.«. 12£ 



CONTENTS. V 

Page 

20. Q. Elizabeth's Dispensative Clause, inserted in her Commission for 
Parker's Consecration • 129 

21. Extract from Cardinal Pole's Faculties, quoted by Bp. Bramhall in 

his Consecration and Succession of Protestant Bishops justified • • • • ib. 

22. Speed's Account of Bp. Fox's Mausoleum in Winchester Cathedral 130 



PART II. 

Transactions o/K. Henry VIII. as Supreme Head of the Church. 

§ 1. K. Henry VIII. publishes Injunctions to the Clergy, and Articles of 
Religion ; in both of which he takes upon himself to act in the cha- 
racter of a Supreme Ordinary 132 

§ 2. The King takes it into his head to reform the Regulars, and pro- 
cures an Act of Parliament to dissolve the lesser Houses' -The Pre- 
amble to that Act- -Corrodies explained 134 

§ 3. Some previous remarks upon the King's destructive Scheme of a 
general Dissolution of all the Monasteries in England 138 

§ 4. K. Henry absolves the Religious from any farther obligation or 
observance of their monastic Vows- •Cromwell is appointed his Ma- 
jesty's principal Commissary in the grand affair of the general Disso- 
Jution* *The names of some of his Sub-deputies- -Copy of an Instru- 
ment or Act of Surrender- *A remarkable Letter from Richard Bella- 
sis to Lord Cromwell 141 

§ 5. Of the six Bishoprics erected by King Henry VIII.. -The erection 
is confirmed by Cardinal Pole in the Reign of Queen Mary "The 
changes at Westminster 146 

§ 6. Sir Wm. Dugdale's Account of the Suppression of our English 
Monasteries 149 

§ 7. K.Henry makes a second irruption into the Patrimony of the 
Church "He puts the Bishoprics under Contribution, and procures a 
grant of the Chanteries, Free Chapels, &c. 156, 

§ 8. Mr. Collier's judicious Remarks upon the general Disssolution of 
AbbieS" He plainly shews that the Abbies were serviceable to the 
Public upon several accounts "He rescues and defends the Monks 
from the imputation of Ignorance • •• • •■ 159 

§ 9. The Motives that induced K. Henry VIII. to dissolve the ReligU 
ous Houses, &c. are recited and answered • • 164 

§ 10. The Fruits of K. Henry VIU.'s Reformation 18a 

The Deeds o/K. Edward VI. as Supreme Head of the Church. 

§ 1. K. Edward commences his Reformation with preparatory Injunc- 
tions- -What Catholic Bisheps were deprived, &c. during this reign • • 133 

§ 2. Cranmer takes out a Commission to exercise the Jurisdiction and 
Authority of an Archbishop duriiTg the King's Pleasure. -Mr.Collier's 
Reflections upon this Transaction ; and his Answer to Bp. Burnet's 
ridiculous Parallel . • « • 185 

§ 3. The Edwardian Bishops are prevailed upon by Cranmer's example, 
to exchange their Charter of Divine Institution for Letters Patents, 
and to become the King's Ecclesiastical Sheriffs' •The form of a Bi- 
shop's Letters Patents ».«...*.*.*........<...«. »* ....... iss. 



VL CONTENTS* 

Page 
§ 4. Of the Depredations and Ravages committed upon Bishoprics in 
the Reign of K.. Edward VI. .... 190 

§ 5. Of the Suppression of the Chanteries, Free Chapels, Colleges, 
Hospitals, &c. with some other instances of the Rapacity ofthe Times 
• «The King's Minority is abused even to a high degree of Sacrilege • • 192 

§ 6. An Ejectment is served upon Images by an Order of the Privy 
Council- -The pretended Reason for this Order is said to have been, to 
prevent idolatrous Worship. -Mr. Collier clears the Papists (as he 
calls them) from the heavy imputation of Pagan Idolatry. -The true 
Reasons for destroying Images and Altars are assigned by D.IIeylin, 
viz. Covetousness, and the Consideration of Profit" A short Di- 
gression, wherein Bucer's Objection against a Mediator of Intercession 
is fairly and fully answered by Mr. Collier 195 

§ 7. Some account ofK. Edward's new Ordinal, and his XLII. Articles 
qf Religion 199 

§ 8. Some account of a new Liturgy or Common Prayer Book, pub- 
lished by K. Edward- -Reflections on the Act of Parliament by which 
it was authorised • * - 203 

§ 9. Calvin procures a second Edition of K. Edward's Liturgy or Com- 
mon Prayer-Book, and censures it with a great deal of freedom • • • • 206 

§ 10. The Fruits of K. Edward's Reformation 208 

The Exploits o/Q. Elizabeth as Supreme Head ofthe Church. 

§ \. At the end ofthe first Session of Q. Elizabeth's first Parliament, 
all the Catholic Bishops (one only excepted) are deprived, for refus- 
ing the Oath of Supremacy- -And what became of them ? 211 

§ 2. By Virtue of the Queen's Injunctions, Churches are stript of their 
Altars, and Images are removed, and coarsely used- • Mr. Collier's 
Thoughts upon this Exploit, and his Observation upon the Bishops' 

Address to the Queen for the Removal of the Images 213 

§ 3. Q. Elizabeth's Motives for enjoining the Observation of Fasting 
Days ; and Mr. Collier's Remarks upon them- -Her Apostolical Com- 
mission 215 

§4. Preliminary Observations on Parker's Consecration 217 

§5. A brief historical Account of this important Affair 223 

§6. Some Account of Paiker's Consecrators 225 

§ 7. What Form of Ordination was made Use of in the Reign of King 

Edward VI.. -When, upon what Account, and by whom corrected 235 
§ 8. Q. Elizabeth dispenses with all Irregularities and Defects in Par- 
ker's Consecration 237 

§ 9. Objections answered • • • » « 239 

§ 10. Ofthe Ravages committed by Q. Elizabeth and her Courtiers on 
English Bishoprics • 245 



THE SUPPLEMENT, 

Consisting of Documents of Puritanic Zeal against the pious and ma- 
jestic Monuments of Antiquity, which escaped the Hands ofthe first 
Reformers. Taken from Mercunus Rusticus 



MEMOIRS 



OF 



THE REFORMATION OF ENGLAND. 



IN TWO PARTS, 



INTRODUCTION. 

X he seriousness and importance of the subject we are 
going- to enter upon cannot, perhaps, be much better ex- 
pressed than in the following' words of Sir Richard Baker f : 
" We shall come to hear of occurrences that have 
been matter of talk to this day, whereof the like have 
never been seen, and will hardly be believed when they are 
heard. A Marriage dissolved after twenty years consum- 
mation ! Houses built in piety ; under pretence of piety 
dissolved ! Queens taken out of love, put to death out of 
loathing! And the Church itself so shaken, that it has 
stood in distraction ever since !" -Behold a concise enu- 
meration of some of the most noted and remarkable Occur- 
rences recorded in the British Annals! 

In perusing History, it is not unpleasant to observe how 
strang-ely the greatest Revolutions, both in Church and 
State, have sometimes emerged from very unpromising', 
not to say trivial incidents. % 

The following Memoirs will confirm the truth of this 
observation ; and we doubt not but the Reader will be 
astonished, and will scarce believe, that the surprising- 
series of events we are going to recount could possibly de- 
rive their birth from so inconsiderable an occurrence as 
King Henry VIII's love-intrigue with the celebrated Lady 
Ann Batten* Yet this is certainly matter of fact, if there 
be any truth in history. 

S ( X The King being violently hurried with the transport 

f Baker's Chron. p. 272. 

I Heylin's Preface to his History of ike Reformation. 

B 



2 Introduction. 

of some private affections, and finding that the Pope ap- 
peared the great Obstacle to his Desires, he first divested 
him, by degrees, of that Supremacy which he had chal- 
lenged, and enjoyed by his predecessors for some ages 
past, and finally extinguished his authority in the realm of 
England. This opened the way to the Reformation, and 
gave encouragement to those who inclined to it. To 
which the King afforded no small countenance, out of 
politic ends." — And thus has our Historian, in few words, 
given us a full and true account of a great Monarch's Mo- 
tives to run mad ! From which account it may be inferred, 
that the Reformation of England accidentally took its rise 
from an unfortunate rupture between King Henry VIII. 
and the great Obstacle of his Desires. 

And what was it the King desired ? What did he want ? 
Only to repudiate his lawful (but now antiquated) Spouse, 
in order to make room for one more agreeable to his fancy 
and his inclination. This, it must be confessed, was 
J bold Stroke for a (second) Wife, the first being still 
alive ! But what will not an ungovernable, headstrong 
prince do, when precipitately hurried away with the vio- 
lent transport of a blind passion ? 

This unhappy passion was artfully enough concealed 
for some time; and, to put a blind upon the nation, the 
King pretended to be stung with a Scruple of Conscience ! 
An idle and vain pretence! and that it was really such, I 
appeal to his Majesty's subsequent behaviour, which plainly 
demonstrated his specious plea of Conscience to be little 
else, at the bottom, but varnish and grimace. 

" t For it is very unconceivable, that such a scruple 
should be real, after twenty years cohabitation, the lawful- 
ness of his marriage having been sufficiently canvassed be- 
fore, when they [K. Henry VII. and K. Ferdinand^ 
thought it necessary to have a dispensation from the Pope. 
But the most probable opinion is, that this voluptuous prince 
rather followed the dictates of his lust, than any real emo- 
tions of conscience." And if so, then I think it may be truly 
said, that these irreligious dictates occasionally paved the 
way to that grand Ecclesiastical Revolution, commouly 
called The Reformation of England. 

Yet perhaps it may be doubted, whether the King coukl 
ever have gained his point, had he not resolved, at last, to 
arm himself with the formidable Sword of Supremacy. 
Por it was his own first, and then bis children's Lay -Su- 
it Short View of the Ewjliah History, p. 185. 



The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey. 3 

premacy, that did all the great feats we are going to 
relate. 

And therefore, in order to give our Reader a distinct 
view of it, we have divided our subject into two Parts. In 
the first .Part, an enquiry is made into the methods that 
were pursued, and the measu?'es that were concerted, by 
our three first Reforming Sovereigns, to get into posses- 
sion of the Spiritual Supremacy. And in the second Part, 
the use they made of their spiritual power is more copiously 
displayed. 



PART I. 

§ ]. The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey His Speech to the 

King's Commissioners upon his being arrested .... Re- 
fections upon it, and the Cardinal's Plea, 

W e begin our Memoirs of the Reformation of England 
with abrief account of the memorable fail of Cardinal Wolsey, 
and we imagine it may not be improper to go back as far 
as that remarkable incident, because that King Henry the 
Eighth's quarrelling with so great a Prelate, may be looked 
upon as an introduction to his maltreating the rest of the 
Clergy, and a kind of commencement of hostilities against 
the whole Church. 

Beit known, then, that this famous Cardinal, from an abject 
meanness of birth, had the good fortune to be advanced, by 
the royal bounty and favour of a great Monarch, to the high- 
est pinnacle of preferment. Not to mention his spiritual 
promotions, which were very considerable, he obtained the 
dignity of First Minister of State. He was the great 
oracle of the court. He had the entire command of the 
whole administration of the government at home, and was 
caressed and feared by the greatest princes abroad. In 
fine, he was a companion for kings and the most exalted 
subject in Christendom. But behold the lubricity of for- 
tune ! behold the instability of all human grandeur and ele- 
vation ! behold the mighty man suddenly thrown down, 
and crushed, like a huge Colossus, with the weight of his 
own fall ! This remarkable event fell out in the following 
manner. 

King Henri) VIII. happening unfortunately to fall in love 

B2 




4 The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey. 

with the celebrated Ann Bullen, as we have already hinted, and 
finding there was no other way to make a wife of her, but by 
dissolving his prior marriage with Queen Catharine, it was 
not long before he desperately resolved to venture upon that 
unhappy expedient. Such an extraordinary resolve as this 
could not long escape the sagacity and penetration of Cardinal 
Wolsey. No doubt but he had early notice of it; for he is not 
only suspected, but even supposed, by several of our histo- 
rians, to have been the very first man that ever attempted to 
perplex the King's Conscience with a Scruple about the Un- 
lawfulness of his Marriage with Queen Catharine: and they 
further add, that this wicked thought was injected merely out 
of a pique to the Emperor Charles V. (the Queen's nephew) 
who, it seems, had unhinged the pretension and traversed 
the design of our aspiring Prelate, first upon the Archbi- 
shopric of Toledo, and afterwards of placing himself in the 
Chair of St. Peter. 

Provoked at this double disappointment, Wolsey from 
henceforward breathes nothing but revenge against both 
the nephew and aunt, the Emperor and Queen Catharine ; 
and, to mature his vindictive scheme, he takes it into his 
head to negociate a match for his master with the French 
King's sister, upon a supposition that the twq crowns of 
France and England being, by such an alliance, the more 
closely and firmly united, they might form, in Conjunction, 
a powerful confederacy against Coesar, But alas \\ this Ma- 
chiavelian plan of operations miscarried ! . The Cardinal 
was unfortunate enough to reckon without his host ; without 
the King-, I mean, who was not now disposed to wed a 
foreigner, being captivated already with the fascinating 
charms of an English Lady. This was the Rock upon 
which Wolsey was wrecked^ with all his cargo of politics ! 

To pry into the secrets of futurity, is a privilege denied 
to the wisest statesmen ; spno wonder if our Cardinal ap- 
peared to be, perhaps, a, little purblind at this critical con- 
juncture. Wholly taj^en up as he was with the pleasing 
■reverie of potent alliances abroad, he little dreamed of the 
powerful confederacy that was formed against him at home, 
where some great personages, how discordant soever they 
might be _ tojf each other, united heartily against him. In 
~&y was ruined by his own imprudence, in creat- 
y enemies at court. 

'lien, Queen Catharine, and the King, (all 
xasperated) were three to one against him. The 
Mr. Strype assures us, was a Lutheran in her 
heart, and an enemy to the Cardinal; and therefore we 




The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey. 5 

need not be surprised, if, to mortify her vanity, Wolsey 
should employ all the art and skill he was master of, to clog 
the grand affair of the Divorce with premeditated delays. 
Queen Catharine, tired with his treacherous behaviour 
and double-dealing, was obliged to lodge an appeal at the 
Court of Home, and to remit the merits of her cause from the 
Pope's Legate (for in that high character then was Cardinal 
Wolsey) to the Pope himself Nor was the King less irri- 
tated at the tergiversation and trilling conduct of his dila- 
tory minister, as Mr. Fuller has observed. 

"fNow began Cardinal Wolsey" says he, " to decline 
in the King's favour, suspecting him for not being cordial 
in his cause, and ascribing much of the delay to his back- 
wardness therein. More hot did the displeasure of Queen 
Catharine burn against him, beholding him as the chief 
engine who set the matter of her divorce first in motion." — 
Rut though the Queen, in her perplexed situation, could 
do little else but weep and pray, our boisterous Monarch 
(who never ruined any man by halves) took up a sudden 
resolution, to convince the Cardinal how dangerous a thing 
it was for him or any one else to check the progress of his 
amour. In fine, to wind up my story, the King ordered 
his attorney-general to prefer a bill of indictment against 
TVolsey, for his having presumed to execute the office of a 
Pope's Legate a Latere in this realm without the royal 
licence (as he pretended) and contrary to a statute made 
and provided in the reign of King 'Richard II. 

Against this accusation the Cardinal pleaded "J The 
King's License under his hand and broad seal, to indemni- 
fy him ; hut that he could not produce the instrument, be- 
cause his trunks and coffers were seized. However, not 
thinking it adviseable to maintain his conduct, he confessed 
the indictment, sent his submission, and cast himself upon 

the King's honour."- All which circumstances are more 

fully and pathetically displayed in a moving speech which 
his Eminence made to the King's Commissioners ; to 
whom (being now arrested and a state prisoner) he thus 
discovered the anguish of his soul. 

" I am now sixty years old, and have spent my days in 
his Majesty's service, neither shunning pains, nor endea- 
vouring any thing more than (next to my Creator) to 
please him. And is this that heinous crime, for which 1 am, 
at this age, deprived of my estate, and forced, as jt were, to 

f Fuller's Church History, B.v. pp.. 175, 17G. 

% Collier's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. ii. B. i. p, 3.8, 



6 The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey. 

beg my bread from door to door ? I expected some accu- 
sation of a higher strain, as treason, or the like: not that 
I know myself conscious of any such matter, but that his 
Majesty's wisdom is such, as to know it little becomes the 
constancy and magnanimity of a King, for a slight fault to 
condemn, and that without hearing, an ancient servant, 
and to inflict a punishment on him more horrid than death ! 
What man is he, who' is so base minded, that he had not 
rather a thousand times perish, than see a thousand men 
(for so many my family numbereth) of whose faithful ser- 
vice he hath had long trial, for the most part to perish be- 
fore his eyes ? But finding nothing else objected, I con- 
ceive great hope that I shall easily break this machination 
of combined envy, as was that late one against me in the 
Parliament concerning treason. It is well known to his 
Majesty (of whose justice 1 am confident) that I could not 
presume to execute my power legaune before he had been 
pleased to ratify it by his royal assent, given under his 
seal, which notwithstanding 1 cannot produce ; that, and 
all my goods (as you well know) being taken from me. 
Neither indeed, if 1 could, would I produce it; for to what 
end should I contend with the King ? Go, therefore, and 
tell his Majesty, that 1 acknowledge all that I have (but 
alas! what speak I of what I have, who indeed have no- 
thing left me ?) or whatsoever I had, to be derived from his 
royal bounty, and do think it good reason that he should 
revoke his gifts, if he thinks me unworthy of them. Why, 
then, do I riot remit my cause to his Majesty's arbitri- 
ment, at his pleasure to be either absolved or condemned? 
To him, then, if you will have me acknowledge my fault, 
behold I will make short work with you, I confess it. The 
King know s my innoceocy, so that neither my own confes- 
sion, nor the calumnies of my adversaries, can deceive him. 
His Majesty, from the fountain of his natural clemency, 
doth often derive the streams of his mercy to delinquents ; 
and I know, though I should not desire it, he will regard 
my innocency." — Stomas Annals. 

If this speech be genuine { which consent of authors en- 
courage us to believe) thus much we may venture to say of 
it, that though it does not come up to the standard of the 
most refined language, nevertheless its sentiments are very 
striking. Like a fine portrait done by some masterly hand, it 
places in full view a great man, astonished, confounded, 
and thunderstruck with a sudden and unexpected reverse of 
fortune ! Cast down headlong from the summit of power 
and preferment, to the low and rueful condition of a beggar 



The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey. 7 

from door to door ! stript in a moment of the princely reti- 
nue of a thousand servants! trembling under the appre- 
hension of a punishment more horrid than death! avowing" 
with the same breath, his guilt and his innocence ! pleading 
for mercy, and imploring the clemency of one who was an 
entire stranger to those royal virtues ! All which sad cir- 
cumstances, so pathetically enumerated, might be apt to 
melt one to compassion, did not the well-known arrogance 
and the boundless ambition of this proud Prelate mutually 
conspire to shut out pity. 

But to enter a little further into the Cardinal's plea. It 
appears from the articles of his impeachment, that he actu- 
ally had the King's licence to exercise his legatine power ; 
and the 28th article in particular insinuates as much. I 
shall first lay it before the reader, and then subjoin Mr. 
Collier^ reflections upon it. 

Art. 28th. "Also whereas the said Lord Cardinal did 
first sue unto your Grace to have your assent to be Legate 
de Latere, promising and solemnly promising before your 
Majesty, and before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 
that he would nothing do, nor attempt, by virtue of his 
Legacie, that should be contrary to your gracious preroga- 
tive or regality, or to the damage or prejudice of the juris- 
diction of any ordinary, and that by his Legacie no man 
should be hurted or offended : And upon that condition, 
and no other, he was admitted by your Grace to be a Le- 
gate within this realm. This condition he has broken, as is 
well known to all your subjects." — Upon which Mr. Collier 
makes the following reflections. 

" f The 28th Article declares expressly, he had the 
King's Licence to exercise his Legatine Authority ; and 
since the Cardinal had the King's leave, and was admitted 
by his Highness, as the article speaks, to be a Legate with- 
in this realm, was it not a great hardship he should be in- 
dicted upon the statute of Praemunire ? For it appears by 
the process, he was not prosecuted so much for the abuse, 
as for the bare using of his Legatine Commission. Thus the 
King made the privilege of his Letters Patent a crime, 
sued against his own Licence, and brought the Cardinal 
under a severe forfeiture, for making use of the Royal 
Authority." 

Now, should we take it for granted, that the Cardinal's 
incurring the penalty of a Praemunire was a great hardships 
and that hisplea was not inequitable; nevertheless, in despite 

+ Collier's Ecel. Hist. Vol. II. b. i. p. 43. 



8 King Henry VIIL 

of all arguments and remonstrances to the contrary, our 
sturdy Monarch persisted in his resolution to seize IVol- 
sey's person and effects, for no other reason that I can find, 
but only this, that such was his will and pleasure. And 
truly, after K. Henry VIII. had renounced all obedience 
to the great Obstacle of his infamous Desires, his conduct 
and his actions were generally the result of this arbitrary 
and tyrannic principle : 

" Sicvolo, sicjubeo, slat pro ratione voluntas/* ...J uv. Sat. vi. ; 
" I have the sov'reign power to save or kill, 

And give no other reason but my will." ...Dryden. 



§ 2.~How the Clergy were drawn into a Praemunire, and 
fined to the Tune of LA 18,840. . . . That foreign Universi- 
ties were bribed to declare for the Divorce. . . . The King 
assumes the Title of Supreme Head of the Church of 
England . . . . His Title is acknowledged by the Clergy with 
a Limitation. 

Upon the disgrace and removal of Cardinal Wolsey, a 
Parliament was called, wherein the Clergy were, with lit- 
tle ceremony, voted guilty of a Praemunire, for their having 
acknowledged that Prelate's Legatine Authority : and in 
consequence of this vote, the whole body of the spirituality 
were indicted in the King's Bench f. Wherefore being 
willing to redeem their whole estates forfeited bylaw, they 
were glad to commute it into a sum of money ; and this 
commutation cost the province of Canterbury L. 100,000, 
and the province of York L. 18,840. 

These arbitrary amercements (whatever motives might 
be pretended) were levied with a view to reimburse his 
Majesty, who had been, for a considerable time, at no 
small expense in procuring proper instruments from foreign 
universities (which he had profusely bribed) to declare in 
favour of his Divorce. 

Indeed Bishop Burnet, with a front of assurance peculiar 
to himself, positively affirms there was no such thing as 
bribery in the case. But if that random- writer had taken 
the least pains to enquire intd the truth, (which, by the 
bye, was none of his business) he might, perhaps, have 
been convinced of the contrary ; if, indeed, it were possi- 
ble to convince such a man. 

f Fuller's Ch, Hist. B. t. p. 18*. 



Tlie foreign Universities bribed. 9 

For, not to insist upon the authorities of the famous 
Cornelius Agrippa, Steidan, and the Author of the Life of 
Bishop Fisher, ' f Cavendish, Cardinal Woteey** Gentle- 
man-Usher, is another authority, that the King was at a 
considerable expense for the gaining the foreign universi- 
ties. He tells us, that those who governed those societies, 
or had the keeping of the common seals, were fed by the 
commissioners with great sums of money , and gained by 
the prevalence of bribery. One of our Parliaments con- 
curs with Cavendish'm his reflections. It is 1 Mar. Sess. ii« 
c. 1. The act sets forth, c That the seals, as well of cer- 
tain universities in Italy and France, were gotten (as it 
were for a testimony) by the corruption of money, with a 
few light persons, scholars of the same universities : as 
also the seals of the universities of this realm, were obtain- 
ed by great travel, sinister working, secret threatening^ 
and entreatings of some men of authority specially sent at 

that time thither, for the same purposes.'" Add to this 

the Pope's Letter to the King (extant in Mr. Collier's Col- 
lection of Records) which absolutely confirms the above com- 
plaint of unfair dealing and sinister practices with the uni- 
versities abroad, part of which is as follows : " As for those 
universities and men of learning, who, as you will write us 
word, incline to your side of the question, very few of 
their opinions have come to our hands ; and even those few 
have not been duly presented by orators, or agents in the 
King's name. At the best they are but crude reasonings, 
unsupported by that which ought, in this case, to be prin- 
cipally considered ; 1 mean, the authority of the word of 
God, and the holy Canons." — See the Appendix No. I. 

In the mean time, the process of the Divorce moved but 
slowly at Rome. So many troublesome difficulties, ob- 
structions, and demurs from that quarter, one upon the 
neck of auother, gave the King's patience a deep wound. 

But two of the most noted state-quacks of those times, 
Cromwell and Cranmer, (who, as the Author of the Short 
V lew assures us, was made Archbishop of Canterbury on pur- 
pose to dissolve the King's Marriage) had prepared a plaister 
for that sore. % At a private audience, which was easily ob 
tained, they assumed the freedom to acquaint his Highness, 
that it was in vain to wait any longer for a Dispensation 
from Rome, and that, to make any farther attempts that 

f Collier' & Ecclesiastical History ) Vol.11. B. i. p. 58. 

t Cujns Consiiii Cromncllus et Cranmerus clamfuisxe authorcs existimaban' 
tur. Aatiq. Brit. 

c 



10 The Supremacy assumed by 

way, was only losing so much time. They insinuated too, 
that a Secular Supremacy, established at home, would abun- 
dantly supply all his Majesty's present wants and pressing 
necessities, and completely furnish him with what he seemed 
to despair of obtaining from the Vatican. And in the con- 
clusion, they forgot not to put him in mind, that since the 
Spirituality were now entangled in a Praemunire, his Ma- 
jesty had nothing more to do, than to seize the favourable 
opportunity, and to push the advantage. These sentiments, 
so plausible in themselves, and so perfectly agreeable to 
his inclinations, the King, Avithout much hesitation, em- 
braced ; and the hopeful scheme being thus precon- 
certed, it was signified to the Clergy in pretty strong terms, 
that " f The King would not be satisfied with the payment of 
the money, except also they would acknowledge him to be 
the Supreme Head of the Church." Now here was a new 
difficulty started, and the Clergy found themselves plunged 
into new troubles. The King rises in his demands upon 
them, and he is fixed and unalterable in his resolution, to 
allow them no other terms of accommodation ; with which 
if the Clergy did not think fit to comply, they were to be 
informed (by a messenger sent expressly from court for 
that purpose) that their humble Petition for a discharge of 
the Praemunire would be rejected with contempt. 

This was indeed a terrible dilemma ! but how to get cle- 
verly out of it; how to secure so many estates, lives, and 
liberties, as now lay at the mercy of an enraged tyrant, 
Hie labor, hoc opus ! However, after it had been long 
and much debated in the Convocation- House, the Clergy 
stretched the point so far at last, as to recognize the 
King's New Title, and to acknowledge His Majesty to be 
the singular Protector, the only and supreme Lord, and also 
supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England, 

&0 tax a0 ig congtetem toitj) tfje Hato of cfjrteu 

And with this restriction, or limitative clause (of which 
Bishop fisher is said to have been the author) the Supre- 
macy was submitted to in that Convocation ; and by passing 
both Houses of Parliament, the Submission passed into a 
law, the King very readily gave his assent to it. — See a re- 
markable dissuasive speech on this subject, spoken by a 
member of the Privy Council in the King's presence, Ap- 
pendix, No. II. 

f Fuller's Ch. Hist. B, y. p. 184. 



King Henry VIII. \\ 



§ 3. Cromwell is advanced to the Dignity of The King's 
Vicar-General in Spirituals. . . .Mr. Salmon's Mistake, 
occasioned by his implicit Faith in Bp. Burnet.. . .King 

Henry discovers the Cruelty of his Temper He puts 

to Death the Old Catholics and the New Gospellers pro- 
miscuously And why An Abstract of his Six fa- 
mous Articles of Religion Mr. Fuller'* Character 

ofK. Henry VIII. 

J.T was not long before Cardinal Wolsey's vacant post at 
court was filled up with the person of his quondam Secre- 
tary, Mr. Thomas Cromwell. This man, during the short 
time of his administration, is said to have done many great 
things, but not one good thing that I have been able to dis- 
cover. Perhaps his greatest merit lay in suggesting to the 
King the Dissolution of the Religious Houses, and his 
bearing hard upon the Jurisdiction of the Clergy. By 
walking in these paths of iniquity, he soon made his way to 
the King's confidence. He soon became a star of the first 
magnitude at court. In short, his pliant conformity with 
the King's will and pleasure in all things, was amply re- 
warded with a multiplicity of lucrative j^osts as well as 
titles of honour ; for he enjoyed successively the dignities 
of Master of the Rolls and Lord Privy Seal : he was made 
a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Gar- 
ter, created Earl of Essex, appointed Lord High Cham- 
berlain ; but higher, and far above all the rest of his titles 
was that of The King's Vicar- General in Spirituals ; a 
dignity never heard of before, either in the list of officers 
belonging to the crown of England, or to any other king- 
dom within the limits of Christianity. Nevertheless, this 
perhaps might be thought to be no impolitic step in those un- 
happy days of confusion ; and perchance the King could not 
so conveniently rear the grand structure of his Lay-supre- 
macy, without making use of such a scaffold. But be that as 
it will, this however is pretty certain, that CromwelPs, im- 
portant commission qualified him, not only to take his seat 
above the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Convocation- 
House, but also to transact every thing relative to the 
King's Supremacy in all its branches ; of which a modern 
historian thus very frankly delivers his opinion. 

" % As the Supremacy was then explained and practised, 
it was pretty difficult for a man to subscribe to it, for the 

X Salmon's History of England , vol. i. p. 230. 

C2 



12 The Supremacy assumed by 

Kiug seemed to claim a power [N. B.] equal to Christ 
himself, when he issued commissions to the Bishops to or- 
dain, consecrate, and administer the Sacraments, and per- 
form all the other parts of their Spiritual Function. The 
Church was now indeed a Creature <>f the State, and the 
Religion of those days not improperly styled A Parliamen- 
tary Religion. And the King' not only looked upon him- 
self as Supreme Head of the Church in the most extended 
sense, hut that he had a power to delegate it to whom he 
pleased, and accordingly made Cromwell his Vicar-Gene- 
ral, and afterwards his Vicegerent , hy virtue whereof he 
took place of the Archbishops and Bishops, as well as the 
lay nobility. '* 

Now here I must beg leave to take notice, en passant, of 
a mistake our historian has inadvertently made, perhaps by 
his too implicit faith in Bishop Burnet. This unaccount- 
able man (and Mr. Salmon after him) very whimsically 
splits Thomas Cromtvell into a Vicar-General and a Vice- 
gerent : whereas it plainly appears (even from Burnet's 
own Collection of Records) that the Vicar- Generalship and 
Vicegerency of that famous minister were only two different 
names expressive of one and the same office. " % For, as 
it happens, this commission of Cromtvell is still extant. 
Now by inspecting this instrument, it appears that Crom- 
well, by being made Vicar-General, had an entire delega- 
tion of the King's Supremacy ; that he had an authority to 
visit all the Bishops and Archbishops in the kingdom ; and 
that Vicar -General and Vicegerent were only two names 
for the same thing. When this learned historian (as Mr. 
Collier is pleased to style Burnet) wrote his Second Part, 
he met with Cromwell's commission for Vicar-General : 
but then he was not so fortunate as to recollect himself, and 

acquaint the reader with his former mistake." No: no. 

This was something more than could well be expected from 
one who had made it the business of his whole lite to propa- 
gate wilful mistakes, to mislead the unguarded, and to 
impose upon mankind. And let this be a warning to all fu- 
ture historians, never to advance any thing upon the bare 
credit and sole authority of Bp Burnet. For if that dis- 
ingenuous writer cannot be relied on in such immaterial 
incidents as these, how can he be safely trusted to in 
matters of greater moment? Especially when it is to be 
considered that, from the time that he first commenced au- 

t See Collier's Eccl Hist, vol, ii. b. 2, p. 104 : and his Collection of Records. 

>Su,XXX, 



King Henry VTIL 13 

thor, (if not before) he has had the misfortune to be ac- 
counted one of those unhappy folks who are never to be be- 
lieved, even when they speak truth. But to return to the 
King". 

Now began his Sublime Highness (more like a Grand 
Signor than a Christian Prince) to rule, not the Clergy 
alone, but all the rest of his subjects, with a rod of iron ! 
The crueli y of his temper had hitherto been pretty much 
suspended ; but now he begins, with a vengeance, to dip 
his hands in blood ! the natural consequence of his claim to 
a new title ! for, from the moment of his usurping the Spi- 
ritual Headship over this National Church, we may date 
the commencement of that fatal, blood-thirsty frenzy and 
madness which continued upon him (bating now and thea 
a lucid interval) to his dying day ! People of all persua- 
sions lived in continual fear and trembling; and cruel as 
King Henry was to the Catholics, yet neither did he spare 
the' Reformers. Witness John Lambert and Ann Ashen-, 
who were both condemned to the flames, and executed in 
Smithjield pursuant to their sentence, for denying the Real 
Presence. 

It would take up too much of our time, to give our Rea- 
der, in this place, a particular list of the names of all those 
that were put to death during the latter (and most excep- 
tionable) part of this Prince's reign : so we think it suffi- 
cient to observe, in general, with Dr. Heylin, that "f King 
Henry never spared man in his anger. — For proof of which, 
it is to be observed, that he brought to the block two 
Queens, two noble Ladies, one Cardinal declared ; of 
Dukes, Marquises, Earls, and the Sons of Earls, no 
fewer than twelve ; Lords and Knights eighteen ; of Ab- 
bots and Priors thirteen ; Monks and religious Persons 
about seventy-seven ; and more of both religions to a very 
great number." 

Not that persons of both religions were executed on the 
same pretence : for as their religions were different, so 
were their crimes, and their punishments too. The Old 
Catholics underwent the rigours of the law, as in cases of 
Treason (for it was made J High Treason to deny the 
King's Supremacy, and the New Gospellers suffered death 
as Heretics, for refusing their assent to the famous &» 
Articles, of which the following is an abstract. 

\ Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 15. 

J Majestatis crimen erat, nohiisse hunc Nebucodonoserem edorare, tanquam 
fyristi, eo in Iiecjno Vicarium. Pal His, Con. Trid lib. iv. c.i, p. 126. 



14 The Supremacy assumed by 

c f Art. I. That in the Sacrament of the Altar, after 
consecration, no substance of Bread or Wine remaineth, but 
only the natural Body of Jesus Christ. 

* II. That the Communion in both kinds is not neces- 
sary to salvation, by the law of God, to all persons. 

s III. That Priests, after orders received, may not 
marry, by the law of God. 

1 IV. That vows of chastity ought to be observed. 

' V. That it is meet and necessary that private Masses 
be admitted, and continued in churches. 

' VI. That auricular Confession ought to be frequent- 
ed by people, as of necessity to salvation.' 

The penalty for writing, preaching, or disputing against 
the first article , was, to suffer judgment and execution of 
a heretic convert; and it was made felony without benefit 
of Clergy, or privilege of Church, or Sanctuary, to de- 
clare, either by writing or otherwise, against any of the 
othevfive. 

Such was the purport, and such the penalties annexed to 
King Henry's celebrated Six Articles of Religion, styled 
by Mr. Fuller , The Lash with six Sti?igs, to claw the poor 
Protestants' Backs. 

But while the King continued the rigcur of his persecu- 
tion against both religions indiscriminately, he gave a han- 
dle to his enemies to represent him as one, who (by sid- 
ing with neither party) seemed to have no religion at all 
himself. 

I shall close this section with Mr. Fuller's character of 
King Henry VIII. " J All the virtues and vices of his 
predecessors from the conquest, may seem in him fully 
represented, both in their kind and degree ; learning, 
wisdom, valour, magnificence, cruelty, avarice, fury, and 

lust." That all the vices of his predecessors, of every 

kind, should chance to centre in King Harry the Eighth, 
is no incredible thing : but I cannot easily be induced 
to believe, that he inherited all their virtues in any de- 
gree. 

+ Vide Fuller's Ck. Hist, book v. p. 230. 
J Ibid. p. 165. 



King Henry VIII. 15 



§ 4. — A short View of some of the most remarkable Acts of 
Parliament , upon which the King's Supremacy was 
established. 

IVing Henri/ having extorted from his reluctant Clergy 
an acknowledgment of his Spiritual Headship over the 
Church of England in the manner already described, his 
next care was to settle his pretensions, and to fix his title to 
the Spirituality upon the power and authority of his Par- 
liament. 

-But before his Majesty attempted to establish his Spi- 
ritual Authority upon this bottom, it was thought expedi- 
ent previously to banish the Pope's Supremacy. 

' Therefore it was enacted, That all payments made to 
the Apostolic Chamber, and all Provisions, Bulls, and 
Dispensations, should from henceforth cease.' But this 
was not all : for it was further ' enacted and ordained, by 
authority of this present Parliament, that no manner of 
speaking, doing, communication, or holding against the 
Bishop of Rome, or his pretended power, or authority, 
made or given by human iaws and policies, and not by the 
holy Scripture : nor any speaking, doing, communication 
or holding against any laws, called Spiritual Laws, made 
by the authority of the See of Rome, by the policy of men, 
which be repugnant or contrarious to the laws and sta- 
tutes oi* this realm, or the King's prerogative royal, shall 
be deemed, reputed, accepted, or taken to be heresy ; nor 
any subject or resiant of this realm shall be impeached or 
troubled tor the same.' Stat. 25. H. 8. c. 14. 

The Pope's authority being thus put to flight, it was 
thought proper, in the next place, to defeat the privileges of 
the Clergy , and this was done accordingly by a disabling 
act, the purport whereof is as follows. 

4 Whereas the King's humble and obedient subjects, the 
Clergy of this realm, have not only knowledged according 
to the truth, that the Convocation of the same is, always has 
been, and ought to be assembled by the King's writ, but 
also, submitting to the King's Majesty, have promised in 
verbo sacerdotii, that they will never from henceforth pre- 
sume to attempt, alledge, claim, orputinusej enact, pro- 
mulge, or execute any new canons, constitutions, ordi- 
nance, provincial or other, or by whatsoever other name 
they shall be called in the Convocation, unless the King's 
most royal assent and licence may to them be had, to make, 



16 The Supremacy assumed by 

promulge and execute the same, and that his Majesty do 
give his royal assent in that behalf.' 

i: f Before 1 go any further, 'twill not be improper to 
take notice of one passage in this preamble, where it is 
said: The Clergy of this realm have knowledged according 
to the truth, that the Convocations always have been, and 
ought to be, assembled by the King's Writ. And here 
it may be said, the penner of this act did not consult the 
ancient practice : for nothing is more certain, than that 
the Convocation met frequently by the sole authority of the 
Archbishop : and that the Clergy insisted upon this method 
of summons, as one branch of the liberties of Holy Church: 
ard that they were thus summoned, we have two instances 
in this reign. They were once convened without the 
King's Writ under Archbishop Wareham, and afterwards 
they met by virtue of Cardinal Wolseifs Legatine Autho- 
rity. 'Tis certain the Clergy in Convocation had acknow- 
ledged what the preamble sets forth : but then, that this ac- 
knowledgement was according to the truth, is more than 
what appears. Now, with all due submission to the legisla- 
tive authority, I hope it is no disregard to truth to say, that 
those who draw a bill may be somewhat unacquainted with 
history, and mistaken in matter of fact. Neither need we 
wonder a mis-recital of this kind should pass two houses. 
I say we need not wonder at this, since the Clergy had led 
them into this error in their submission to the Crown. For 
who could have imagined the Clergy should have fallen into 
such an oversight, wanted skill or courage to maintain their 
privilege, and contradicted undoubted records to their own 
disadvantage ? % That it was customary for the Bishops, 
&e. to meet in Synods without the King's Writ, is evident 
from the form of the Clergy's Submission in the year 1532, 
at which time they were prevailed upon in verbo Sacerdotii, 
not to assemble from henceforth in any Convocation, or 
Synodal Meeting, but as they should be called by his Ma- 
jesty's Writ. They promise not to assemble, &c. Uoai 
henceforth, which implies that formerly they used to do 
ether wise." — [See Burnet's History of the Reformation 9 
vol. i. b. 2. p. 1 47, where the particle henceforth is artfully 
suppressed.] But to go on with our preamble : 

' And whereas it standeth with natural equity and 
good reason, that all human laws, and all causes which 
are called Spiritual, induced into this realm, your Royal 

f Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. IT. h. ii. pp. S3, 94, 86. 
% Ibid. Vol. I. b. T. p. 468. 



King Henry VIII. 17 

Majesty, and your Lords Spiritual and Temporal, have 
full Power and Authority, not only to dispense, but also to 
authorize some elect persons, to dispense with those and all 
other human Laws of this Realm, as the quality of the 
persons and matter shall require; as also the said Laws to 
abrogate, admit, amplify, or diminish. 

e Be it therefore enacted, that from henceforth every Li- 
cence, Dispensation, &c. that in cases of necessity may 
lawfully be granted, without offending the holy Scripture 
and the laws of God, necessary for your Highness, and 
for your Subjects, shall be granted in manner following, 
that is to say : The Archbishop of Canterbury shall have 
power to grant them to your Majesty. And if the afore 
said Archbishop shall refuse, or deny to grant any Licences, 
Dispensations, &c. that then, upon examination had in 
your Court of Chancery, that such Licences may be grant- 
ed without offending against the Scriptures, your High- 
ness may command the Archbishop to grant them, under 
such penalties as shall be expressed in the Writ of Injunc- 
tion.' Stat. 25. H. 8. c. 19. 

Thus the Power of the Pope and the Liberties of Holy 
Church being entirely demolished, the wisdom of the na- 
tion thought fit, in the last place, to erect the grand pillar 
of the Reformation, the King's Ecclesiastical Supremacy, 
upon the ruins of them both. How this was done the fol- 
lowing Act declares. 

' Albeit the King's Majesty, justly and rightfully, is and 
ought to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, and 
is recognized by the Clergy of this Realm in their Convo- 
cations, yet nevertheless, for corroboration and confirma- 
tion thereof, and for encrease of vertuein Christ's Religion 
within this Realm of England, and to repress and extirpe 
all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses, 
heretofore used in the same, be it enacted, by the authority 
of this present Parliament, that the King our Sovereign 
Lord, his Heirs and Successors, Kings of this Realm, 
shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only Supreme 
Head in Earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana 
Ecclesia, and shall have and enjoy annexed and united to 
the Imperial Crown of this Realm, as well the title and stile 
thereof, as all honours, dignities, immunities, profits, and 
commodities to the said dignity of Supreme Head belong- 
ing and appertaining. And that our Sovereign Lord, his 
Heirs and Successors, Kings of this Realm, shall have full 
power and authority, from time to time, to visit, repress, re- 



18 The Supremacy assumed by 

dress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all 
such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, 
whatsoever they be, which by any manner of Spiritual Au- 
thority or Jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed, 
redressed, ordered, repressed, corrected, restrained, or 
amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the en- 
crease of vertue in Christ's Religion, and for the conserva 
tion of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm ; any 
usage, custom, foreign laws, foreign authority, prescrip- 
tion, or any thing or things to the contrary hereof notwith- 
standing.' Stat.2Q. H.8. c. 1. 

" * This Act grants the King full power and authority to 
visit, order, and reform all heresies, abuses, fyc. which by 
any manner of Spiritual Authority or Jurisdiction may 
lawfully be ordered or reformed. This clause declares the 
King f Supreme Ordinary, makes his Majesty, and by 
consequence those commissioned by him, judges of heresy, 
and puts the Ecclesiastical Discipline into their hands. 
And yet, by the 20th article of the Reformation, the 
Church is said to have power to decree rites and ceremonies, 
and authority in controversies of faith. This article pro- 
nounces the Church the judge in matters of faith, and seems 
to contradict the Statute before us. But notwithstanding 
this inconsistency, the Thirty -nine Articles were confirmed 
by Act of Parliament in the reign of Q. Elizabeth" 

But leaving Q. Elizabeth to authorize inconsistencies and 
contradictions by Act of Parliament, proceed we to re- 
count another remarkable statute, enacted in the days of her 
father. It sets forth : 

* That Archbishops, Bishops, and Archdeacons, and 
other Ecclesiastical Persons, have no manner of Jurisdicti- 
on Ecclesiastical, but by, under, and from his Majesty.' — 
Farther, ' That all persons, whether married or unmar- 
ried, being doctors of the civil law, who shall be deputed to 
be any chancellor, commissary, &c. may lawfully exercise 
all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, any constitution 
to the contrary notwithstanding.' — And finally, e That his 
Majesty is the only undoubted Supreme Head of the 
Church of England and of Ireland, to whom, by holy 
Scripture, all authority and power is wholly given, to hear 
and determine all manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to 
correct vice.' Stat. 37. H. 8. b. 17. 



* Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. b. 2. p. 88. 

t "The King is the Supreme Ordinary. " Cohe. See also W< ocVs Insti- 
tutes. 



King Henry VIII. 19 

And thus was the Crown of England, by Act of Parlia- 
ment, absolutely invested with all authority and power ec- 
clesiastical, and that too (if you will believe the act) by holy 
Scripture; but the chapter and verse, I profess, I cannot 
find. One thing, however, I can easily find, and that is, that 
among other abuses and enormities, the Divine Institution 
of Episcopal Authority is not only redressed, but sup- 
pressed too, if not entirely abolished, by the policy of men. 
The Bishops, &c. are declared (as such) to have no juris- 
diction at all, but by, under, and from his Majesty. And, 
to crown the last act of the drama, King Harry VIII. (like 
Cato in the senate-house) sets himself up for a reformer of 
heresies, a. restrainer of enormities, and a corrector of 
rice ! 

" Tertius e ccelo cecidit Cato !" Juv. Sat. 2. 

" Rome now must needs reform, and vice be stopt, 
Since a third Cato from the clouds is droptl"... Dryd. 



§ 5. — A Recapitulation of King Henry's Spiritual Powers 
and Prerogatives. . . .Reflections upon them. . . .Bp. Bram- 
hall's Objections answered. 

31 ever surely were English Parliaments more complaisant 
to their sovereign, than in the reign of King Henry the 
Eighth. With surprising and almost incredible alacrity 
they accommodated themselves to his humour ; they sub- 
scribed, without reserve, to his capricious measures ; and 
frankly adopted all bis schemes, tho' never so out of the- 
wayor extravagant. They had already joined with him in 
great business of extirpating the Pope's Supremacy : and 
when that was done, they very generously made a present of 
it to his Majesty j which he as graciously accepted of. What 
tise he made of it is to be the subject of a future enquiry. 
In the meantime, it is to be presumed, a brief recapitula- 
tion of this Monarch's Spiritual Powers and Prerogatives 
will be no unentertaining amusement to the reader. Where- 
fore, in consequence of an open rupture with the See of 
Rome, the King immediately challenged, 

1. An entire possession of all jurisdictions, honours, dig- 
nities, profits, and emoluments, belonging or appertaining to 
the Supreme Head of the Church of England ; which (toge- 

D2 



20 The Supremacy assumed by 

ther with the title) were annexed for ever to the Imperial 
Crown of'thi realm. 

2. A fulness of power, to correct and punish all errors, 
heresies, enormities, and vices; and to exercise all manner 
of Eccle iustical Jurisdiction. 

3. A plenitude of authority, to depute his vicegerent, 
his doctors of the civil law, his chancellors, commissaries, 
&c. to execute all manner of Spiritual Jurisdiction, with a 
non obstante to any constitutions, customs, &c. to the con- 
trary. 

4. An unlimited power, not only to grant Dispensations 
from the throne, but also to authorize some elect persons to 
dispense with all Ecclesiastical Laws, without the consent 
of the Clergy, or of any lawful Church Authority. 

5. An absolute power to supersede the jurisdiction and 
authority of Archbishops, Bishops, &c. and to pronounce 
thein deprived oi all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, except such 
only as they might obtain and enjoy by, under, and from 
his Majesty. 

6. A power to amplify or diminish, admit or abrogate, 
the Ecclesiastical Laws of this realm ad libitum. 

7. A power to grant Licences, Dispensations, Faculties, 
&c. to be himself (or, if he pleased, his Court of Chance- 
ry, or any other deputy) the dernier resource, or final 
judge in matters of controversy ; to whom (and no far- 
ther) appeals might be made, concerning what is agreeable 
or repugnant to holy Scripture and the Law of God. 

8. A power to define, that no speaking, doing, or hold- 
ing against any spiritual laws shall be deemed to be heresy. 

9". A power, not only to suspend any spiritual person or 
persons that shall preach or teach contrary to the determi- 
nations which are or shall be set forth by his Majesty ; but 
also to condemn every such offender, after the third of- 
fence, to suffer (as an heretick) the pains of death by burn- 
ing. Vide Stat. 34 and 35 H.8. c. 1. 

10. A power to restrain all foreign appeals, censures, 
and processes, not only in cases when the regality of the 
crown, the civil government, or the interest of the subjects 
were concerned, but likewise in such as are merely spirit- 
ual, and entirely subjected to spiritual cognizance. 

Lastly, he challenged a power to declare all canons, con- 
stitutions, &c. made or published by the Clergy without 
the royal assent, to be null and void. 

Such were the powers and such the prerogatives which 
King Henry VIII, with the concurrence of his obsequious 



King Henry VIII. 21 

Parliaments, extorted from the Church. And granting 
now lhat a set of modern statutes and acts of Parliament 
might serve for a ground-work to a Parliamentary Religi- 
on, yet I presume I may nevertheless venture to say, that 
From the beginning it was not so. Canon law and ecclesi- 
astical constitutions were rules of practice to all the kings 
of this island, from its conversion to Christianity, till that 
memorable period when the Religion of England first be- 
came parliamentary, i.e. till the unhappy days of King 
Henry the Eighth. And if so, we may conclude his noble 
progenitors fell vastly short of their proportionable dividend 
of power, in case this monarch had no more of it than came 
fairly and honestly to his share. For we defy all the advo- 
cates for the Lay Supremacy to show us, what particular 
crowned Head it was, in all the royal list of King Henry's 
predecessors, that ever challenged the above recited powers, 
or ever attempted to advance the prerogative royal to that 
exorbitant height it was carried to, towards the latter end 
of his distinguished reign. 

But behold King Harry the Eighth's Champion ! Be- 
hold^a formidable Dimoch in lawn sleeves ! Behold Bp. 
Bramhall advancing against us, and with a magisterial and 
_decisive air, objecting that, " * To be Head of the English 
Church is neither more nor less than our laws and histories, 
ancient and modern, do every where ascribe to our English 
Kings." 

In answer to this, we beg leave to observe, that our au- 
thor's neither more nor less amounts to nothing more and 
nothing less, than just nothing at all I For if by the Head 
of the English Church our wise objector means nothing more 
than a political head, vested with proper authority to go- 
vern all his subjects, of all ranks and degrees, whether ec- 
clesiastical or lay persons, we grant what he advances to be 
true. But then, what is it to the purpose? For upon a 
very superficial inspection into our laws and histories, it 
may easily be perceived, that something more than this 
comes to was actually ceded to King Henry VIII. by his 
pliant Parliaments. We may find that he was the first of 
our English Kings that ever styled himself the Supreme 
Head of the Church of England, the first that ever an- 
nexed the /Supremacy to the imperial crown of this realm, 
the first that ever made it treason to deny or refuse him 
that title. All which particularities are as plain and evi- 

* Bram. Schism Guarded, p. 88. Graienhagh, l(i58. 



2-2 The Supremacy assumed by 

dent in our histories, as that there was such a man as King 
Me Jury VIII. 

But our author goes on, and in the same dictatorial strain 
assures us, that "*The ancient Kings of England did as- 
sume as much power in ecclesiastical affairs as Henry the 
Eighth did. 

Did they so ? But where 's the proof of this groundless 
and arbitrary assertion? For truly we are not disposed 
implicitly and blindly to subscribe to the Doctor's ipse 
dixit. We owe no such deference to his authority. On the 
contrary, we positively say and maintain, he imposes upon 
his reader, by his too boldly advancing, that the ancient 
Kings of England did assume as much power in ecclesiasti- 
cal affairs as King Henry the Eighth did. For, in the ob- 
vious sense and meaning of these words, nothing less is im- 
ported, than that all King Henry the Eighth's predeces- 
sors invaded the Spiritual Prerogatives of the Church, and 
trampled upon the privileges of the Clergy in the same 
manner and with the same insolence as he did. But this we 
do aver to be a palpable mistake, if not something worse. 

Nor is it any thing to the purpose in this dispute, to 
quote the vastly unaparallel cases of Henry II. and Richard 
II. The first, it is very well known, was only engaged in 
a private dispute with an Archbishop of Can erbury : tho' 
the contest of the latter, we confess, was of a more public 
nature, ami makes some little noise in history, but more in 
controversy, upon the account of a noted prsemu nire- act, 
which passed into a law in the 16th year of this prince's 
reign. Which act, because it is said, by some injudicious 
writers, to give a mortal stab to the Pope's Supremacy, it 
may not, we presume, be disagreeable to the reader, to 
have a clear and distinct view of it laid before him. 



§ 6. — King Richard the Second's famous Statute of 'Praemu- 
nire. . * Remarks upon it. 

JtCepeated attempts have been made, from time to time, by 
the advocates of the lay- supremacy, to extenuate at least, 
tho' we think it scarce possible to vindicate, King Henry 
the Eighth's unexampled encroachments upon the immuni- 
ties of the Church and her sacred patrimony. 

f Schism Guarded, p. 2G4. 



King Henry VIII. 23 

Some will have it, that his Majesty did not liudge one 
step beyond the boundaries prefixed by the ancient king's 
of England, his predecessors. But this opinion is mani- 
festly inconsistent with the authentic records of the his- 
tory of Great Britain, Others fancy King Henry's con- 
duct to be perfectly similar, if not all of a piece with that of 
King Richard II. This is fancy indeed ! and nothing 
else. For whoever is disposed, (without passion or preju- 
dice) to balance the respective pretensions of these two 
kings, and the principles upon which they acted, will be 
hard put to it, I believe, to discover any thing like a simi- 
larity in their proceedings. To give a few instances. 

Henry boldly challenged and laid claim to every branch 
of the spiritual power : Richard was modestly content to 
assert his temporal authority. Henry insisted upon be- 
ing constituted Head of the Church : Richard resolved to 
maintain (and who can blame him for it ?) the regality of 
his crown. Henry would be independent, and subject to 
no earthly power in spirituals : Richard affected the same 
independency in temporals only. And the truth of these 
observations is evidently demonstrable from the following 
particulars which we are going to recite, (l) The Archbi- 
shop of Canterbury's Protestation. (2) The preamble to 
the act. (3) The act itself. To which shall be added a few 
remarks, in order to explain the nature and desigu of the 
celebrated statute now before us. 

Let it be observed then, that upon the Commons bring- 
ing in a bill (by way of petition) against some papal en- 
croachments which, in those days, were thought to bear 
somewhat too hard upon the prerogative royal, William 
Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury, stood up, protested 
and gave his opinion in the High Court of Parliament, in 
answer to the petition of the House of Commons : and as 
this was a leading step to what followed, so we shall 
commence our account of the whole affair from 
The Archbishop's Protestation. 
**To our dread Sovereign Lord the King in this pre- 
sent Parliament, his humble Chaplain, William Archbishop 
of Canterbury, gives in his answer to the Petition brought 
into Parliament by the Commons of the Realm, in which 
Petition are contained certain articles, that is to say : 

' Whereas our said Sovereign Lord the King and all his 
liege subjects ought of right to sue iii the King's Court, to 
recover their presentments to churches, prebends, &c. But 

f Collier's EccL Hht. Vol. I, b, v. pp.594, 595, 



£4 The Supremacy assumed by 

now of late divers processes be made by the Bishop of 
Rome, and censures of excommunication upon certain Bi- 
shops of England, because they have made execution of 
such commands, &c. The Archbishop protests,— that 'twas 
not of his intention to affirm our Holy Father the Pope has 
no authority to excommunicate a Bishop, pursuant to the 
Laws of Holy Church, declares and answers, that if any 
executions of processes are made, or shall be made, by any 
person ; if any censures of excommunication shall be pub- 
lished and served upon any English Bishops, or any of the 
King's subjects, for having made execution of any such 
commands, he maintains such censures to be prejudicial to 
the King's Prerogative, as is set forth in the Common'' Pe- 
tition : and that so far forth he is resolved to stand with 
our Lord the King, and support his crown in the matters 
above mentioned, to his power. 

' And likewise, whereas it is said in the Petition, that 
eomplaint has been made that the said holy Father the Pope 
has designed to translate some English Prelates out of the 
realm, and some from one Bishoprick to another, within the 
same realm, without the King's assent and knowledge, 
and without the consent of the Prelates which shall be so 
translated, &c 

' The said Archbishop, first protesting that it is not his 
intention to affirm that our holy Father aforesaid cannot 
make translations of Prelates, according to the laws of 
holy Church, answers and declares, that if any English 
Prelates, who by their capacity and qualifications were 
very serviceable and necessary to our Lord the King and 
his Realm, if any such Prelates were translated to any sees 
in foreign dominions, or the sage lieges of his council were 
forced out of the kingdom against their will, and that by 
this means the wealth and treasure of the kingdom should 
be exported ; in this case, the Archbishop declares, that 
such translations would be prejudicial to the King and his 
Crown : for which reason, if any thing of this should hap- 
pen, he resolves to adhere loyally to the King, and en- 
deavour, as he is bound by his allegiance, to support his 
Highness, in this and all other instances in which the rights 
of the crown are concerned. And lastly, he prayed the 
King this schedule might be made a record, and entered 
upon the Parliament Roll, which the King granted.' From 
this recital of the Archbishop of Canterbury's protestation, 
proceed we, in the next place, for the further information 
of our reader, to transcribe 



King Henry VIII. 23 

The Preamble to the Act. 

**Wherea9 the Commons of the realm, in the present 
Parliament, have sued unto our redoubted Lord the King 1 , 
grievously complaining, that whereas the said our Lord 
the King, and all his liege people, ought of right, and of 
old times were wont to sue in the King's Court, to recover 
their presentments to churches, prebends, and other benefi- 
ces of holy Church to the which they had a right to present, 
the cognizance or plea of which presentment belonged) only to 
the King's Court, of the old right of his Crown, used and 
approved in the time of his progenitors, Kings of England. 
But now of late divers processes be made by the Bishop of 
Home, and censures of excommunication upon certain Bi- 
shops of England, because they have made execution of 
such commandments, to the open disherison of the said 
Crown, and destruction of our said Lord the King, his law, 
and all his realm, if remedy be not provided. And also it 
is said, and a common clamour is made, that the said Bi- 
shop of Rome hath ordained and purposed to translate some 
Prelates of the said realm out of the realm, and some from 
one bishopric to another within the same realm, without the 
King's assent and knowledge, and without the assent of 
the Prelates which so shall be translated ; which Prelates 
be much profitable and necessary to our said Lord the King 
and to all his realm : by which translations (if they should 
be suffered) the statutes of the realm should be defeated 
and made void, and his said liege sages of his council, 
without his assent, and against his will, carried away and 
gotten out of this realm, and the substance and treasure of 
the realm shall be carried away, and so the realm become 
destitute, as well of council as of substance, to the final de- 
struction of the same realm : and so the crown of England, 
which hath been so free at all times, that it hath been in no 
earthly subjection, but immediately subject to God, in all 
things touching the regality of the same crown, and to none 
other, should be submitted to the Pope, and the laws and 
statutes of the realm by him defeated and avoided at his 
will, in perpetual destruction of the sovereignty of the 
King our Lord, his crown, his regality, and of all his 
realm, which God defend. 

' And moreover it was demanded of the Lords Spiritual 
there being, and the procurators of others being absent, 
their advice and will in all these cases ; which Lords, that is 
to say, the Archbishops and Bishops, and other Prelates, be- 

f Fuller's Ch. Hist. Bookiv. p. 14.5, 146, 147. 

B 



26 The Supremacy asserted hy 

ing in the said Parliament severally examined, making 
protestations, that it is not their mind to deny or affirm 
that the Bishop of Rome may not excommunicate, nor that 
he may make translation of Prelates, after the law of holy 
Church, answered and said, that if any execution of pro- 
cesses made in the King's Court (as before) be made by 
any, and censures of excommunication be made against any 
Bishops in England, or any other of the King's liege peo- 
ple, for that they have made execution of such command- 
ments, and that if any execution of such translations be 
made of any Prelates of the same realm, which Prelates 
he very profitable and necessary to our said Lord the King 
and to his said realm, or that the sage people of his coun- 
cil, without his assent, and against his will, be removed 
and carrier! out of the realm, so that the substance and 
treasure of the realm may be consumed ; that the same is 
against the King and his crown, as is contained in the Pe- 
tition before named. And likewise the same procurators, 
every one by himself, examined upon the said matters, 
have answered and said, in the name and for their lords, 
as the said Bishops have said and answered, and that the 
said Lords Spiritual will and ought to be with the King, in 
these cases, in lawfully maintaining of his crown, and all 
other cases touching his crown and his regality, as they he 
bound by their liegiance.' 

After this preambular Remonstrance, corroborated by 
reciprocal engagements and protestations of both the 
Houses, to stand by and support the Crown, in the cases 
abovementioned, immediately follows 

The enacting Part of the Statute. 

c MlfjCnupOU our said Lord the King, by the assent 
aforesaid, and at the request of his said Commons, hath 
ordained and established, that if any purchase or pursue, or 
cause to be purchased and pursued, in the Court of Rome, 
or elsewhere, any such translations, processes, and sen- 
tences of excommunication, bulls, instruments, or any 
other things whatsoever, which touch the King, his crown, 
and his regality, or his realm, or them receive, or make 
thereof notification, or any other execution whatso- 
ever, within the same realm, or without, that they, their 
notaries, procurators, maintainors, abettors, fau tors, and 
counsellors, shall be put out of the King's protection, and 
their lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeited to 
our Lord the King. And that they be attached by their bo- 
dies, if they may be found, and brought before the King 
m& his council, there to answer to the causes aforesaid, or 



King Henry VIII. 27 

that process be made against them by Praemunire facias, 
in manner as is ordained in other Statutes of ProvisorsS 
Remarks upon this Act. 
This is the famous Statute of Praemunire, which, by 
some polemic writers, has been injudiciously represented, 
styled, and proclaimed a necking-blow to the Pope's Supre- 
macy, and the original Magna Chart a of the Iloyal Su- 
preme Power Ecclesiastical. 

But, for our part, we must confess it is beyond our skill and 
penetration to discover, in this Act, any thing that can be 
fairly construed into a formed design to demolish the Pope's 
Supremacy ; and much less to establish a Lay-Supremacy 
in the place of it. On the contrary, it plainly appears to 
have been made with no other view or design, but only to 
guarantee the Temporal Privileges of the Prince and his 
Subjects from foreign encroachments, and to preserve the 
balance of power (if I may be allowed the expression) in a 
just equipoise, between the mitre and the crown, with re- 
gard to temporalities only. And in this sense Archbishop 
Courteney undoubtedly understood it, when he protested and 
engaged to support his Highness [the King] in this and all 
other instances in which the liJUjjJjtg* 0£ t!)C CtOtOtl are con- 
cerned. 

It cannot therefore be pretended, that the Pope's Supre- 
macy is utterly defeated by the above-recited Act, without 
imposing such asense, and putting such a construction up- 
on it, as it was never intended to bear. For with doctrinal 
matter (such as the Pope's Supremacy is) it meddles not 
at all, no, nor so much as mentions, and much .'ess discards. 
Whence we infer, that the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
the rest of the Prelates might, without any difficulty, hesi- 
tation, or scruple of conscience, freely subscribe (as indeed 
they did) to the truth of this proposition, That the crown of 
England is immediately subject to God in all things touch- 
ing the l&ggftltt£ of the same crown. But then, their 
Lordships were so cautious as to put in a caveat, even 
against this subscription, by protesting solemnly, at the 
same time, that it was neither their will nor intention to 
infringe or prejudice the Pope's Spiritual Jurisdiction ; but 
leave his excommunications upon civil accounts, his power 
of making translations of Bishops y &c. in their full force and 
vigour. And thus did they wisely stand up in defence of 
the civil rights of their Sovereign, without breaking in up- 
on the Spiritual Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, which, 
in reality, they left uncontested. 

As for the prohibition of appeals to Rome, on account of 

E 2 



28 The Supremacy asserted by 

presentments to churches, prebends, and other benefices, it 
is no argument against the Pope's Authority. Appeals to 
that court, in matters relating to discipline, are disallowed 
in other kingdoms, which nevertheless are well known to 
be zealous and steady in maintaining the Pope's Suprema- 
cy in all matters of doctrine. 

But it is wrong to suppose that doctrinal points were the 
subject of the famous statute now in question. And, as a 
proof of this, we appeal to the following; heads of com- 
plaint : First, that the Pope refused the King's and other 
inferior lay- presentments of churchmen (otherwise duly 
qualified) to church benefices or livings, without giving 
his reasons for such refusals. Secondly, that the Pope 
translated English Bishops from one Bishoprick to another 
within this realm, and sometimes out of the realm too, 
without the King's assent, and even against his will : 
whereby the King's liege sages, (as the Act styles such of 
the Bishops as were privy-counsellors) as well as the sub- 
stance and treasure of the realm were carried away and ex- 
ported into foreign countries. And what are all these but 
temporal considerations % 

When therefore King Richard the Second took up a reso- 
lution to redress the grieva?ices complained of by the Com- 
mons of England, and determined at last to exert himself 
in defence of the Regality of his Crown, can he be justly 
blamed for so doing ? The means he employed and the 
measures he pursued were deemed, in those days, to be 
far from unjustifiable in themselves, and the Premunire 
Act was then looked upon, even by the Lords Spiritual, as 
an expedient prudently devised and wisely contrived, to an- 
swer the great end of rendering to Csesar the tilings that are 
Caesar's ; but without excluding the other part of the evan- 
gelical precept, which enjoins the duty of yielding to God 
the things that (by being consecrated to the Use of his 
Church) belong to God. 

And did King Henry the Eighth confine his pretensions 
within these modest and moderate bounds ? Did he con- 
tend with the great obstacle of his desires, only about some 
few instances in which the l&tijfjtS? Ol tl)t CtOVoiT were 
concerned? Did he challenge nothing more than mere 
temporalities ? Was his dispute with the Pope only about 
his l&Cgalltp ? And was there no such thing as Suprema- 
cy in the case ? To maintain the negative, a man should 
be stocked with a fund of assurance sufficient to outface the 
most plain and positive records, and be duly qualified to 
turn the most serious history into fiction and romance. For 



King Edward VI. 29 

it is notoriously known to all the world, that this Prince's am- 
bitious views, and insatiable lust of power, instead of being 
confined to temporalities only, were extended so far, as to 
take in every particular branch of the Spiritual Authority, 
every individual Prerogative of the See of Rome. 

By way of supplement to the Regal Supremacy, we re- 
commend to the reader's perusal An Extract of a curi- 
ous Discourse upon that subject. It is in the Appendix, 
No. III. 

And so, for the present, we shall take leave of Old 
King Harry ; it being* our intention, in the next place, to 
entertain our reader with a short view of his children's re- 
spective supremacies. At our next interview with his 
Highness, (in the second part of these Memoirs) we shall 
be melancholy spectators of the dire effects, the dismal con- 
sequences, and the deplorable use he made of his Church - 
headship. 



§ 7. — King Edward VI. succeeds his Father His Mino- 
rity is abused to the Prejudice of the Church, and his 

Conscience is unserviceably directed Dr. Heylin's 

Character of King Edward's Parliament Mr. Col- 
lier admits the Truth of it The Doctor dates the 

commencement of the Reformation of England from the 
Beginning of this Reign Mr. Fuller's whimsical Ac- 
count of the Rise and Progress of Nonconformity, or Pu- 
ritanism. 

Upon the demise of King Henry VIII. the Crown of 
England devolved to his only Son, who, with all the so- 
lemnities usual upon such occasions, was proclaimed by the 
name, style, and title of King Edward the Sixth. Whether 
or no this Prince was ushered into the world by the uncom- 
mon method of a Cesarean Operation, I shall not take up- 
on me positively to assert or deny ; though several authors 
of no mean credit maintain the affirmative to be matter of 
fact: and Mr. Fuller in particular calls it A constant Tradi- 
tion. But let this birth be as it will, certain it is, that 
" f His minority was abused to many acts of spoil and ra- 
pine, even to a high degree of sacrilege. And among ma- 
ny other instances of the sacrilegious acts of this reign, the 
reader is desired to take notice of the following ones. 

f Heylin^Hht.Ref. p. 131. 



30 The Supremacy asserted by 

" f Private men's halls were hang with altar cloths, their 
tables and beds covered with copes instead of carpets and 
coverlets. Many drank at their meals in chalices ; and no 
wonder if, in proportion, it came to the share of their 
horses to be watered in rich coffins of marble I' 1 — And can 
such flagrant abuses and prophanations of holy things 
amount to any thing less than a high degree of sacrilege P* 

" X As to King Edward, notwithstanding" his advantages 
by nature and education, it is pretty plain his conscience 
was not always under a serviceable direction. He was un- 
der wrong prepossessions as to Church Government. He 
would have no authority given in general to Bishops : but 
that the best of them should have commissions to exercise 
their functions in their diocese, and the rest as it were laid 
by and disabled. And thus he was educated to an opinion 
of his being the fountain of all spiritual as well as tempo- 
ral power. — [And he may thank the director of his consci- 
ence, D. Cranmer, for his being educated in this opinion.] 
— Some politicians about him formed his mind to their 
interest, flattered his childhood, and misled his under- 
standing. That he was not always under a happy manage- 
ment, may be farther collected from some arbitrary com- 
missions and strains of law in deprivation of Bishops. 
He seems to have had no notion of sacrilege. — [How 
should he, when a certain great man had taught him, 
by his own sad example, to commit that sin without scru- 
ple.] —Had he been bred to the same aversion to tills crime 
which he expressed against images and the mass, he won hi 
never have taken such freedoms with the consecrated reve- 
nues, nor impoverished the Church to so lamentable a de- 
gree: and which is somewhat remarkable, most of these 
hardships were put upon the ecclesiastics in the latter end 
of his reign, when his judgment was in the best con- 
dition." 

But may it not, without offence, be questioned if his 
judgment was ever in a good condition ? Alas ! what 
great maturity of judgment could be supposed to reside in 
a mere boy ? For at hi.s father's death he was but nine 
years old. At this early period of life (and perhaps before 
lse had thoroughly learned his catechism) it may bethought 
not only somewhat remarkable, but also very astonishing in 
him, to undertake that important business, that grand af- 
fair, The Steerage of the Church. Yet, notwithstanding 

f Fuller's Ch. Hist.. Book vii. p! 417. 

% Collitr'i £ccl. Jliat. Vol. II. Book iv, p. 332. 



King Edward VI. 31 

the disadvantages of his childhood and inexperience, to this 
high post was King Edward advanced. For it appears 
upon record that he had the title of Supreme Head of the 
Church, and every ghostly prerogative annexed to that 
magnificent title, conferred upon him by the authority of 
his Parliament. : the character whereof is thus given us by 
Dr. Heylin. 

" f And now it is time to attend the Parliament, in which 
the cards were so well packed by Sir Ralph Sadler, that 
there was no need of any shuffling till the end of the game ; 
this very Parliament, without any sensible alteration of the 
members of it, being continued by prorogation from session 
to session, until at last it ended by the death of the King^ 
And tho' the Parliament consisted of such members as dis- 
agreed among themselves in point of religion, yet agreed 
well enough in one common principle, which was to serve 
the present time, and preserve themselves. For though a 
great part of the nobility, and not a few of the chief gentry 
in the House of Commons, were cordially affected to the 
Church of Rome, yet \vere they willing to give way to such 
acts and statutes as were made against it, out of a fear of 
losing such church lands as they were possessed of, if that 
religion should prevail and get up again. And for the rest, 
who either were to make or improve their fortunes, there is 
no question to be made but that they came resolved to fur- 
ther such a reformation as should most visibly conduce to 

the advancement of their several ends.''' Mr. Collier seems 

to admit of this character of King EdwaraVs parliamentary 
assembly ; at least he expresses no disapprobation of it, 
when he tells us, that " J The members of this Parliament, 
as Heylin relates, though of different sentiments with re- 
gard to religion, yet agreed in a common principle, to 
strike in with the juncture, to take care of themselves, and 
to close with such a reformation as served best for their 
purpose. — This seems pretty evident by the testimony of 
some of the Acts,, which in Ueylin's opinion, seem to over- 
look the concerns of religion, and aim at private interest 
in a very remarkable manner." 

And truly we agree with our historians, that a Parlia- 
ment made up of mercenary, time-serving members, dis- 
agreeing in every thing but the common principle of self- 
interest, was sure to advance nothing but what had a visi- 
ble tendency towards the creation or improvement of estates 

f Heylin's Hisf.Bef. p. 47, 48. 

J Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol.11. Bookiv. p. 233. 



32 The Supremacy assei*ted by 

andfo?*tunes. Add to this, that even those who were cordi- 
ally affected to the Church of Rome, readily concurred with 
the rest to vote down the Old Church, for fear of losing 
their new Ecclesiastical Acquisitions. Such, and so univer- 
sal, were the corruption and depravity of the times ! But 
to return to the King. 

He was now under the sole management and direction 
of the Lord Protector Somerset, a rigid Zuinglian ; so no 
wonder if Zuinglianism should prevail, and become, at this 
juncture, the established religion of England. At least it 
wanted no encouragement as long as the Grand Duke conti- 
nued in power. And he only wanted time to destroy the 
Hierarchy, or Episcopal Government, and to erect the 
Swiss form of worship upon the ruins of it. And, perhaps, 
it is no improbable conjecture that, " f If this King [Ed- 
ward] had reigned any considerable time, the Hierarchy of 
the Church would probably have been destroyed, and the 
National Religion reduced to the form of Geneva. For 
Somerset himself was a Zuinglian, and the rest of the great 
men of his time inclined more to the rigid principles of 
Calvinism, than the present constitution of the Church of 
England^ n 

But without amusing our reader with probabilities or 
conjectures, this, we think, may be advanced as a certain- 
ty, that from the beginning of King Edward's reign, we 
may date the commencement of The Reformation of Eng- 
land. And Dr. Heylin is clearly of this opinion J. " From 
the beginning of this reign," says he, " the Reformation 
began. Ad that was done in order to it under King Henry 
the Eighth seemed but accidental only, and by the by, ra- 
ther designed on private ends, than out of -any settled pur- 
pose of a reformation. But now the great work was carried 
on with a constant hand.— But of all the constant hands 
employed upon this occasion, nobody was thought more 
constant than the Duke of Somerset, who, as chief archi- 
tect, conducted the great work in such a manner as might 
best answer his own private interest ; from which he never 
departed. And that it might be the more acceptable to the 
English, (so naturally fond of new things from abroad) it 
was designed upon a foreign plan, and built upon Zuinglian 
foundations. 

But as soon as thegreat work appeared above ground, it 
had the misfortune, it seems, to be opposed, vi et armis, 
by a queer set of folks, under the denomination of Non~ 

f Short View, p. 198, % Heylirts Preface to his Hist. ReJ\ 



King Edward VI. 33 

conformists, or Puritans. This name was given them, as 
it is supposed, because they either could not, or would not, 
conform to the Religion of the Court ; stiffly maintaining 
the necessity of a further and still purer Reformation. 
Hence their way of worship came to be styled Nonconfor- 
mity, Of the rise and progress whereof, Mr. Fuller has 
left us the following whimsical account. 

" * Nonconformity in the days of King Edward was con- 
ceived, which afterwards in the reign of Queen Mary (but 
beyond the sea at Frankfort) was born, which in the reign 
of Q. Elizabeth was nursed and weaned, which under King 
James grew up a young youth, or tall stripling, but to- 
wards the end of King Charleses reign, shot up to the 
strength and stature of a man [he might have said a giant] 
able not only to cope with, but conquer the hierarchy its 
adversary. And this conquest was actually made during 
the time of Oliver Cromwell's usurpation." 



§ 8. — Some Account of the Dissolution of the Bishoprickof 

Durham. 

JL he Duke of Somerset being taken off in the meridian of 
his glory, by an unlucky stroke of an axe on Tower-hill, 
the Duke of Northumberland, from that time, became the 
great and mighty man. He governed as he pleased, not the 
King alone, but the kingdom too ; and engrossed all the 
power, and every prerogative of a sovereign, excepting 
only the name. He was an enemy to the Church, but with 
no other view than to enrich himself. In fine, he com- 
mitted many sacrilegious depredations; but that which 
made the most noise, was his bold attempt upon the rich, 
and therefore tempting Bishoprick of Durham. 

The opulence of this See was the great, aud, it is believ- 
ed, the only crime that provoked the great Dudley to con- 
trive its ruin. For he was politician enough to perceive it 
might be an easy matter (after it was by parliamentary au- 
thority annexed to the crown) to procure a grant of it to 
himself. This was his project. And in order to facilitate 
tlie execution of it, he neither wanted power nor interest to 
procure an Act of Parliament. As this act is somewhat 
curious and uncommon, so we thought it might not be im- 
proper to subjoin a recital of it ; not only upon that ac- 

* Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book vii. p. 401. 

F 



34 The Supremacy asserted by K. Edward VL 

count, but also because we shall have occasion to mention 
the repeal of it in the next reign, — It sets forth : 

6 f That that Bishoprick being then void of a Prelate, so 
that the gift thereof was in the King's pleasure ; and the 
compass of it being so large, extending to so many shires 
so far distant, that it could not be sufficiently served by one 
Bishop ; and since the King, according to his godly dispo- 
sition, was desirous to have God's holy word preached in 
these parts, which were wild and barbarous, for lack of 
good preaching and good learning ; therefore he intended 
to have two Bishopricks in that diocese, the one at Duresme, 
which should have 2000 marks revenue, and another at 
Newcastle, which should have 10d0 marks revenue ; and 
also to found a Cathedral at Newcastle, with a Deanry and 
Chapter, out of the revenues of the Bishoprick. Therefore 
the Bishoprick of Duresme is utterly extinguished and 
dissolved, and authority is given for letters patent to erect 
the two new Bishopricks, together with the Deanry and 
Chapter at Newcastle ; with a proviso, that the rights of the 
Deanry, Chapter, and Cathedral of Duresme, should suf- 
fer nothing by this act.' 

Yet, notwithstanding- this proviso (which is only thrown 
in by way of a sweetener), it is easy to conceive that the 
Deanry, Chapter and Cathedral of Durham, must inevit- 
ably have suffered very much in their ancient rights, in case 
this Act had been carried into full execution. But, luckily 
for that wealthy Bishoprick, the Duke of Northumberland 
was made shorter by the head before he could find time to 
dissipate or dismember it. — " % Had such a dissipation of 
the parts thereof been made, no less than a state-miracle 
had been requisite for a recollection thereof. Whereas now 
within two years, Queen Mary restored Tonstal to this 
Bishoprick, and this Bishoprick to itself, resettling all the 
lands on the same." 

To these reflections I have nothing more to add, but that 
the Bishop, Dean, and Chapter of the Cathedral of Durham, 
are bound in gratitude to entertain and preserve an inviola- 
ble respect for the name and memory of Queen Mary, to 
whose piety and bounty they are indebted for their lands 
and livings, which are well known to be very considerable. 

+ Burnet's Hist. Ref. Vol. II. Book i. p. 215. 
J Fuller's Ch. Hist.' Book vi. p. 419. 



The Supremacy disclaimed by Queen Mary. 35 



§ 9. — Queen Mary disclaims the Supremacy, and reconciles 
this Nation to the See of Rome by its Representatives in 

Parliament Cardinal Pole, in Quality of the Pope's 

Legate, absolves them from all Ecclesiastical Censures. 

Jlving Edward being dead, his sister, the Princess Mary, 
after a short struggle with the Lady Jane Gray, stept into 
the throne : and being a zealous Catholic, the Supremacy 
in Spirituals was immediately disclaimed by her, as a thing 
inconsistent with her religion and principles. So the first 
public business she set her hand to, wa« the great work oi* 
reconciling her kingdom of England once more to the 
See of Rome ; and this she effected by the ready concur- 
rence of this nation's representatives in her first Parliament, 
where both the Houses being assembled (and King Philip 
being likewise present) a supplication or petition was drawn 
up and presented to their Majesties, of which the following 
is a copy. 

* f We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Com- 
mons in this present Parliament assembled, representing 
the whole bodie of the realme of England and dominions of 
the same, in the name of ourselves particularly, and also of 
the sayd bodie universally, offer this our most humble sup- 
plication to your Majesties, to this ende and effect, that the 
same, by your Grace's intercession and meane, may be 
exhibited to the most Reverend Father in God the Lord 
Cardinal Pole, sent specially hether from our most holy 
Father Pope Julius the Thirde, and the See Apostolique of 
Home, wherein we do declare ourselves very sorry and re- 
pentaunt of the long schisme and disobedience committed in 
this realme and the dominions of the same agaynst the sayd 
See Apostolique; eyther by making*, agreeing to, or exe- 
cuting any iawes, ordinaunces, and commaundements, 
agaynst the primacy of the same See ; or otherwise doyng, 
or speaking that might impugne or prejudice the same: 
offering ourselves, and promising by this our supplication, 
that for a token and knowledge of this our sayd repentance, 
we be, and shall be ever readie, under and with the autho- 
rities of your Majesties, to the uttermost of our power, to 
that shall lye in us, for the abrogation and repealyng of all 
the sayd lawes and ordinaunces, made, or enacted to the 
prejudice oi'the See Apostolique; as well for ourselves as 
ioi the whole bodie whom we represent. Wherefore most 

f Parliamentary Hist, of England, Vol, III. p. 32], 

F 2 



36 The Supremacy disclaimed by 

humbly we beseech your Majesties as personages undefiled 
in the offence of this bodie towards the sayd See, to set 
forth this our humble suyte, as we the rather, by your in- 
tercession, maye obteine from the See Apostolique, by the 
sayd most Reverend Father, as well particularly as gene- 
rally, absolution, release, and discharge, from all daun- 
gers of such censures and sentences, as, by the lawes of 
the Church, we be fallen into. And that we may, as chil- 
dren repentaunt, be receyved into the bosome and unitie of 
Christens Church, so as this noble realme, with all the mem* 
bers thereof, may in this unitie and perfect obedience to the 
See Apostolique and Popes for the tyme beyng, serve God 
and your Majesties to the furtheraunce and advauncement 
of his honour and glorie. Amen* 

"This humble Petition," continues my Author, "being 1 
first openly read, the same was delivered by the Chancellor 
to the King and Queen, with a request to them, that they 
would give it to the Lord Cardinal. Their Majesties rising 
off their seats, and doing reverence to the Cardinal, did 
deliver the said Petition to him. Who perceiving the 
effect thereof to answer his expectation, received it most 
gladly at their hands. And then, after that he had in few 
words given thanks to God, and declared what great cause 
he had, above all others, to rejoice that his coming from 
Borne into England had taken such a happy turn ; he caused 
his commission to be read, by which it might appear, that 
he had authority from the Pope to absolve them. The com- 
mission was very long and large ; which being ended, and 
all the Parliament, both Lords and Commons, on their 
knees, the Cardinal, by the Pope's authority, gave them 
absolution as follows. 

' Our Lord Jesus Christ with his most precious blood 
has redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniqui- 
ties, that he might purchase to himself a glorious Spouse 
without spot or wrinkle ; and whom the Father hath ap- 
pointed Head over all his Church, he by his mercy absolve 
you : And we, by the Apostolic Authority given to us by 
the most holy Lord Pope Julius the Third, his Vicegerent 
on earth, do absolve and deliver you, and every of you, with 
the whole realm and the dominions thereof, from all he- 
resy and schism, and from all and every judgment, censures 
and pains, for that cause incurred. And also we do restore 
you again to the Unity of the Holy Church, as in our Let- 
ters of Commission mere plainly shall appear : In the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
A men,'' 



Queen Mary. 37 

"After this general absolution was so given and received, 
the King", Queen, and all the Lords, with the rest, went 
into the King's Chapel, and there sung TeDeum with great 
joy and gladness, for this new reconciliation." 

And thus was the old Religion of England solemnly re- 
stored and admitted, once more, to take possession of all 
the privileges and immunities it had enjoyed, before King 
Henri/ VIII. took it into his head to disturb the happy re- 
pose of this nation with an unfortunate passion for a new 
wife and a new title. 

We must not forget to take notice, that in Queen Mary's 
first Parliament, " t All consecrations were declared void 
and null, which had been made according to the ordinal of 
K. Edward Yl. — J So that, for want of Canonical Ordina- 
tion on the one side, and under colour of Uncanonical Mar- 
riages on the other, we find a general remove amongst [K. 
Edward's] Bishops and Clergy." Of which a more explicit 
account shall be given in the ensuing section. 



§ 10. — Queen Mary displaces the Edwardian Intruders, and 

restores the Catholic Bishops to their respective Sees 

A short Character of King Edward's Bishops The 

Dissolution-Act of the Bishoprick of Durham isjrepealed. 
The Preamble to that Act. 

J. he following Catholic Bishops, viz. Bonner, Gardiner, 
Tonstal, Heath, and Day, had been committed, and de- 
tained prisoners during the greatest part of King Edward's 
reign ; but, upon his death, a change of the times happened 
intheir favour ; for they were happily enlarged, and summon- 
ed to Parliament 1 Marr. where also Samson of Coventry 
and Lichfield, Salcot (alias Capon) of Salisbury, King of 
Oxford, Chambers of Peterborough, Thirlby of Norwich, 
Buckley of Bangor, Parfew {aWsisWarbington) of St. Asaph, 
and Kitchin of Landaff, who had all temporized pretty 
much ; but being now reconciled to the Old Religion, were 
admitted to take their seats. Some other Catholic Divines 
were also, about this time, ordained Bishops, to fill up 
such Sees as were become vacant by the removal of several 
of the Edwardian intruders and other time-serving Prelates, 
whose names, as also the names of those by whom they were 
replaced, are here subjoined. 

f Heyl'm's Hist. Ref. p. 38. | Idem, p. 28. 



38 The Supremacy disclaimed by 

Cranmer of Canterbury. — Queen Mary deprived him of 
his Archiepiscopal Dignity, and sent him to the 
Tower. He was succeeded in the See of Canter- 
bury by Cardinal Po/e. —A new Marian Prelate, 
and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Holegate of York. — By his, scandalous misbehaviour he sul- 
lied the lustre of that mitre he had the honour to 
wear. In the reign of K. Edward Yl. he was, for the 
space of about eighteen months, imprisoned in the 
Tower for heinous offences, which, purely out of 
* a regard to his character, we forbear to mention. 

And being deprived in Queen Mary's reign, he 
was succeeded by Heath. Translated from lVor-> 
cester. 

Kidley of London. — After the death of K. Edward, he listed 
in the service of the Lady Jane Gray, and preach- 
ed a seditious sermon against Queen Mary's bet- 
ter title and pretensions to the crown. For which, 
and some other treasonable practices, he was de- 
prived and committed to the Tower. He was 
succeeded by Bonner. — Restored. 

Goodrich oiEly. — He ran great lengths in the reign of 
King Edward Yl. by whom he was constituted 
Lord Chancellor of England, but was outed by 
Queen Mary, and deprived of the Great Seat, 
which was given to Gardiner. Goodrich dying 
soon after, was succeeded by Thirlby. Trans- 
lated from Norwich. 

Bush of Bristol. — Deprived on the account of his marri- 
age. Succeeded by Holyman. A new Marian 
Prelate. 

Bird of Chester.— Deprived for being married. Succeeded 
by Coates. A new Marian Prelate. 

Barlow of Bath and Wells. —Deprived for his uncanonical 
marriage, &c. After his ejectment, he made a 
shift to get over into Germany, where he lived, 
says Mr. Fuller, in great poverty and want. He 
was succeeded by Bourn. A new Marian Prelate. 

Scory of Chichester. —We went a full length in his compli- 
ance with the times, put away his wife, did pe- 
nance, and received absolution from Bp. Bonner; 
but, retiring into Germany, he returned to his 
vomit. He was succeeded by Day. Restored. 

Coxerdale of Exeter.— Upon his deprivation he retired into 
Germany, where he joined with the Furitans in 
their opposition to King Edward^ Common- 



Queen Mary. 39 

Prayer-Book. He was succeeded by Vesey. Re- 
stored. 
Taylor of Lincoln. — Deprived, " Ob nullitatera consecratio- 
nis ejus," says the record, " et defectum tituli 
sui quem habuit a Rege Edwardo Sexto cum hac 
clausula, Qnam diu bene se gesserit" — Succeeded 
by While. A new Marian Prelate. 
Harley of Hereford. — Deprived for marriage and heresy, 
and the other reasons alledged against Taylor. 
Succeeded by Parfew. Translated from St. 
Asaph. 
Hooper of Gloucester. — Deprived for default of title, nullity 
of ordinations, marriage, and other instances of 
misdemeanor. Succeeded by Brooks. A new 
Marian Prelate. 
Farrer of St. David's.^— Deprived propter causas supradic- 
dictus, i. e. for the same reasons for which Hooper 
was displaced. Farrer was succeeded by Morgan. 
A new Marian Prelate. 
Poynet of Winchester. — He was deeply engaged in Wyatfs 
insurrection, and actually appeared in the field 
against Queen Mary. But after she had happily 
broke the neck of that rebellion, Poynet was ob- 
liged to fly into Germany, to save his own. He 
was succeeded by Gardiner. Restored. 
As for the Edwardian, and other time-serving Prelates, 
we think we should be guilty of committing an outrage upon 
truth, in case we should attempt to place their character in 
an amiable light. They seem to have been advanced to 
Bishopricks, not for thegoodhut the goods of the Church; 
which nevertheless they shamefully squandered away. To 
give some instances. " f D. Barlow being made Bp. of 
Bath and Wells, gratified the Lord Protector with a pre- 
sent of eighteen or nineteen manors, which anciently belong- 
ed to it. And lying all, or the most part of them, in the 
county of Somerset, seemed very conveniently disposed of 
for the better maintenance of the title of Duke of Somerset, 
which the Protector had taken to himself. Many such 

strange donationsweshallfind in others." In a word, the 

scandalous depredations these Bps. committed are very 
astonishing ; and the more so, because " J The lands were 
not taken by force, but basely surrendered by men who were 
made Bishops on that condition. Ridley particularly gave 

•f Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 130. 

% Short View, p. 199. See also Collier's Collection of Recoffls, No. LXXII. 



40 The Supremacy disclaimed by 

to the crown the flower of the demesnes belonging to the 
See of Lbndon. An odd kind of simony ! It is common to 
give money for Rishopricks, but these men gave their Bi- 
shopricks for a share of the money and the title." 

And by this opprobrious tenure they held Bishopricks as 
long as King Edward possessed the throne. But in the 
next reign the case was altered. Then, perceiving their 
cause to be in a sinking condition, and that there was no- 
thing to be hoped for after IVyatfs rebellion was suppress- 
ed, the Reforming Brethren suddenly resolved to quit the 
kingdom and sheer off. And in consequence of this resolu- 
tion, some of them steered for Geneva, others for Zurich, 
Worms, Arrow, Basil, Embden, Antwerp, Strasburyh, 
and Frankfort ; where splitting into different sects, " infi- 
nite were the confusions which they had amongst them- 
seves," says Dr. Heylin. — See his Hist. lief. p. 59. 

And how happy might it not have been for this nation, had 
these lamentable contusions and fantastical broils been for 
ever confined to Germany and Swisserland! For, as the 
above quoted Historian observes, " They made foul work 
in England at their coming home." — [Hist. Presb. p. 241.] 
But for this great blessing we may thank Q. Elizabeths 
mistaken politics and misplaced indulgence. 

Conclude we this section with Bp. TonstaVs restoration 
to his See of Durham, and the See itself to its pristine 
state and honours. 

All the other Catholic Bishops were easily restored, only 
by displacing the Edwardian interlopers, with some others, 
whose scandalous lives called aloud for the censure of de- 
privation. But Bishop Tonstal (whose Bishoprick had been 
utterly extinguished and dissolved by parliamentary autho- 
rity, as is before observed) could not be replaced without 
an Act of Parliament. A Bill therefore was brought into 
this Parliament [1 Mar.] for that purpose. "fThe Pre- 
Preamble to this Bill is very remarkable, and sets forth : 

' That certain ambitious persons, taking advantage of 
the late King's minority, made an interest, by sinister 
practice, to procure the dissolution of the Bishoprick ; that 
it was done out of mercenary views, to enrich themselves and 
their friends, by seizing the lands of that See, rather than 
upon just occasion or godly zeal. That Tonstal, Bishop of 
Durham, was deprived upon untrue surmises and false accu- 
sations, and that the process against him was foul and illegal. 
That upon a full examination of the matter by the Queen's 
commissioners, the sentence of deprivation was de/Iared 

f Parliamvttary Hist *£ England, Vol. HI. p. 2XT7, Sue, 



Queen Mar$. 41 

void, as may be seen at large by an authentic instrument. 
That the Queen had new founded the Bishoprick by her 
letters patents, and restored all the lands in her possession. 
But that neither the reversal of the sentence of deprivation, 
nor the Queen's letters patents, were of sufficient force to 
recover the honours, lands, &c. to the See of Durham. 
Therefore to restore the Bishoprick to its former interest, 
privileges, and revenues, the two Dissolution Statutes of the 
last reign were hereby repealed.' — See the Act qf Repeal \u 
the Appendix , No. IV. 



§ 11.— 'Animadversions on the suppositious Martyrs of this 

Reign They suffered not on Account of Religion only. 

.... Witness their treasonable Prayers and seditious 
Books. 

BEFORE we come directly to the point in question, we 
beg leave to propose Mr. Collier' s judicious observation up- 
on martyrdom in general. 

11 f 'Tis the cause, and not the pain, that makes the mar- 
tyr. That throwing up life without warrantable reason, is 
no instance of true fortitude. To dye against truth and or- 
thodoxy, has more of desperation than greatness in it. — It 
is not death then, but the cause for which a man dies, that 
must entitle him to a crown of martyrdom. Nor is it at all 
material, whether a person expires by the ax, the halter, or 
a faggot : for unless he suffers death for the cause of virtue, 
in defence of the true religion, and in quality of a member 
of the true Church of Christ, he stands but a poor chance 
to have his name enrolled in the list of the Martyrs of 
Christ:' 

But did not the Foxian Martyrs of this reign suffer for 
religion ? That they suffered for religion only, or that reli- 
gion was their only crime, is something more than we are, 
or ever shall be, disposed to grant. Their own seditious 
behaviour bears witness agaiust them : so does the His- 
tory, as well as the authority of a Parliament of those 
times. And from both the one and the other, their guilt is 
clearly proved to have been a complication of Heresy, Trea- 
son, and Sedition ! Treason was the common topic upon 

f Collier's Eccl Hist. Vol. II. Book v. p. 3ft*, 

G 



42 The Supremacy disclaimed by 

which the holy zealots held forth, and entertained their 
hearers, both in their public assemblies and private confe- 
rences: and their treasonable and seditious prayings and 
preachments against the Queen were carried to such a pro- 
digious height, that it was thought necessary to silence 
and suppress them by the authority of Parliament ; a Petiti- 
on being first presented to the throne, for an Act to be ex- 
pressly made for that very purpose. [Vid. Stat. 1 and 2 

Phil, and Mar. where it is declared High Treason to pray (as 
they prayed) that God would shorten the Queers days, #c] 

" f It must be confessed," says Mr. Collier, *' eagerness 
of temper and injudicious aversion carried same of the 
Reformed to practices by no means defensible. For in- 
stance, they prayed, That God would turn Queen Mary's 
heart from idolatry, or else shorten her days. Thus much 
is confessed by Fox, tho' he forgets [lie wilfully forgets, 
we suppose,] to censure the disloyalty. — However, 'tis cer- 
tain the report of this intemperate zeal occasioned an Act of 
Parliament, by which It was made high treason For any 
person to pray that God would shorten ihe Queen's days, or 
take her out of the way, or make any such malicious prayer, 
importing the same sense. The Preamble cites the Petition 
above mentioned as unquestionable matter of fact ; and then 
subjoins, i'hat such a prayer was never heard or read to 
have been used by any good Christians against any Prince, 
tho'' he were a Pagan or an Infidel, and much less against 
any Christian Prince. The Statute concludes with a pro- 
viso, that if any persons, indicted for any thing of this kind, 
done during the present session, shall show themselves pe- 
nitent, and submit to the Queen's mercy, that then no 
judgment or attainder of treason shall pass upon them, but 
they shall receive such corporal punishment, on this side 
death, as the Court shall appoint. — And such was the beha- 
viour of the Puritans at home." 

As for the English Refugees abroad, they soon learned 
whatever might be thought necessary to form and embellish 
the character of Prof essors of Disloyalty ; especially such of 
them as had retired to Geneva, and were educated at the 
feet of Calvin or Knox. Calvin was a leveller by principle, 
and Knox a professed enemy to monarchical government. 
Calcin's school at Geneva, was a nursery of rebellion, and 
Knox a noted incendiary J. " Calvin calls Mary, Queen of 

f Collier's Eccl Hist. Vol. IT B, v. p. 375. See also BurneVs Hist. Bef, 
Vol. II. B.ii. p. 297. 
* Bejflw's Hist, fresh, p, 25, 



Queen Mary. 43 

England, by the name of Proserpine ; assuring us, that all 
the devils in hell were not half so mischievous. And Knox 
could not find for her any hetter titles than Jezahel, Mis- 
chievous Mary of the Spanish Blood, 1 he professed Enemy 

of God." Under such great masters, no wonder if the 

English Puritans should become adepts in the noble arts of 
reviling and praying backwards tor their lawful Sove- 
reign. 

And truly their pious prayers were hardly to be matched 
by any thing in the world but their edifying books, of which 
Mr. Collier presents us with the following taste. " f That 
some of the reformed were well wishers to JVyafs revolt, 
is past all doubt. For the purpose, there was a book pub- 
lished at Geneva about this time by Christopher Goodman.-— 
'Tis stuffed with a great deal of scandalous invective 
against the Queen, and her subjects are incited to rebellion. 
He makes no scruple to embalm JVyafs memory, and flou^ 
rishes upon the insurrection in these words : ' fVyafi,' says 
he, ' did but his duty ; and it was but the duty of all others 
that professed the gospel, to have risen with him for the 
maintenance of the same. His cause was just, and they 
were all traitors who took not part with him. O noble 
Wyat ! thou art now with God and those worthy men that 
died in that happy enterprise V To give another instance : 
There was a book printed towards the latter end of this 
reign, but neither the precise year nor place are mentioned. 
This book was put into my hands for PoyneVs. As to the 
performance, 'tis a most pestilent discourse. He runs a 
great length of satire against the government ; makes Po- 
pery as bad as heathenism, and glances not unintelligibly 
upon the Queen. He presses the expedient of deposing 
princes. And, which is more, he wrests the scripture to 
justify his doctrine, recommends assassination from several 
places in the Old Testament, and misapplies the instances 
in a horrible manner ! Besides the scandal of the matter, 
he is frequently gross in his railings, and sometimes inde- 
cent in his levities."- To suppress these, and many 

other such like scandalous invectives against the govern- 
ment, it was thought proper to publish the following 

Proclamation. [An. b Mar.] 

1 Whereas divers books, filled with Heresy, Sedition, 
and Treason, have of late been daily brought into this 
realm out of foreign countries, and also some covertly 

f Collier's EccJ. Hist. Vol. II. B. v* p. 303. 

G2 



44 The Supremacy disclaimed by 

printed within this realm, and cast abroad in sundry parts 
thereof, whereby not only God is dishonoured, but like- 
wise encouragement is given to disobey lawful princes 
und governors. Therefore for redress hereof we command 
the suppressing of all such books.' 



^ ll.—A Specimen of the Spirit of Mr. Strype's imprisoned 

Saints. 

To make a true estimate of the spirit of Mr, Strype's Holy 
Men, we must take a view of them in their state of confine- 
ment, where, it seems, their unseemly heats and animosi- 
ties against one another, upon the score of religion, were 
carried to such a scandalous height, that, in order to pre- 
vent their going together by the ears, the jailers were 
obliged to commit each of them to a separate apartment. For 
whenever they chanced to meet, their prodigiously high- 
mettled zeal rendered them extremely prone, in all their re- 
ligious rencounters, 

" To prove their doctrines orthodox y 
By opostolick bloivs and knocks." 

But to be serious. — Mr. Strype divides hrs ungovernable 
disputants into two classes, viz. Free-willers (as he is 
pleased to call them) and Arians. The first (who, by his 
description of them, appear to be professed Pelagians) he 
characters men of holy lives ; and the latter, though they 
denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ, are nevertheless repre- 
sented by this wrong-headed author under the absurd notion 
of men imprisoned for the gospel. Imprisoned for the 
gospel ! For what gospel? Is it gospel, to deny the Divi- 
nity of Jesus Christ f Is it gospel, or rather is it not blas- 
phemy, to deny St. Peter's celebrated confession, Thou art 

Christ, the Son of the living God ? But let us hear our 

accom plished Memorialist. 

" f One thing there now fell out/' says he, "which 
caused some disturbance among the prisoners. Many of 
them, that were under restraint for the profession of the 
gospel, were such as held free-will, tending to the deroga- 
tion of God's grace, and refused the doctrine of absolute 
Predestination and Original Sin. They were men of strict 

-f Strypc's Memvrials of the Life of A, B . Cranmcr f p. 350. 



Queen Mary. 45 

and holy lives. They ran their notions as high as Pelagius 
did, and valued no learning ; and the writings and autho- 
rities of the learned they utterly rejected and despised. 

" Besides these Arttipredestinarians, there were some 
few who, laid in prison for the gospel, were Avians, and 
disbelieved the Divinity of Jesus Christ. - These different 
opinions occasioned such unseemly, quarrelsome disputes 
and heats among themselves, that the Marshal [of the 
King's Bench Prison] was fain to separate them one from 
another. And in 1556, the noise of this reached to the 
Council, who, the better to know the matter controverted 
between th«m, sent D. Martin to the King's Bench to ex- 
amine it. These were some of the transactions that passed 
among the prisoners." 

Edifying Transactions, it must be confessed, and noble 
examples of the mild and gentle spirit of Mr. &trype y s Men 
of holy lues ! though perhaps a wiser man than this memo- 
rial-writer would have industriously concealed the intempe- 
rate sallies of these bigotted enthusiasts, out of a regard for 
the Reformation -, to which, it is our opinion, they were no 
great credit. 



§ 13. — The deplorable Catastrophe of Repingdon Abbey 
Church. ... How and by whom the Abbey Lands were 
secured to their respective Grantees or Purchasers. 

Upon the demise of King EdwardW. the crown of Eng- 
land, as it is very w r ell known, devolved to his sister Mary, 
a zealous Catholic. Being settled in the throne, she re- 
solved to make restitution of all such monastic houses, 
church lands, &c. as were at that time possessed by the 
crown. She restored to Bishop Tonstal all the lands be- 
longing to the See of Durham that were in her possession. 
She procured the restoration of the Benedictin Monks to 
their ancient Abbey of Westminster. She provided a new 
convent for the Dominicans in Smi hfield. She replaced 
the Franciscans at their house in Greenwich, the Bridgetin 
Nuns atSyon, the Carthusians at Sheen, &c. The news of 
these transactions coming in post-haste down from London, 
made the purchasers of abbey-lands look about them. And 
particularly " f One Thacher being possessed of Repingdon 
Abbey, in Darbyshire, alarmed with the news, that the 

f Fullerh C'h. Hist. Book vi. p. 3>s. 



46 The Supremacy disclaimed by 

Queen had set up the Abbies again, and fearing how large 
a reach such a precedent might have, upon a Sunday (be- 
like the better day the better deed) called together all the 
masons and carpenters of that county, and pluckt down in 
one day a most beautiful church belonging thereunto, add- 
ing, He would destroy the nest, for fear the birds should 
build there again." 

But Mr. Thacker might have spared himself the unneces- 
sary trouble and expence of his memorable Sunday's work. 
The birds were effectually prevented from building there 
again by the Pope and the Parliament. For the first dis- 
pensed with the laity's holding church lands, and the latter 
confirmed the dispensation, as our records testify, and our 
historians assure us. 

" f On the 20th of December, a Bill was brought into the 
House of Lords, and on the 26th it was read a third time, 
and passed that house. It was entitled, A Bill for repeal- 
ing all statutes, articles, and provisoes made against the See 
Apostolique of Rome since the Qftth year of King Henry the 
Eighth ; and for the establishment, of all Spiritual and 
Ecclesiastical Possessions and Hereditaments conveyed to the 
Laity. The Commons took less time to consider of this 
Bill, tho' some alteration was made by them in it. — The 
purport of this Act was, to declare their former schism from 
the See of Rome, and their reconciliation to it now ; and 
upon which all Acts passed since the 20th of King Henry 
the Eighth against that See, were particularly enumerated 
and repealed. And in order to remove all grudges that 
might afterwards arise, the Parliament desired the Lord 
Cardinal to intercede with the Pope, that the following ar- 
ticles might by his authority be established. [They are fisa 
in ali, but we shall only quote the first, third, and fifth, the 
other two not being for our purpose.] I. c That all Bishops, 
Cathedrals, or Colleges now settled, might be confirmed 
for ever. III. That all Institutions to Benefices might be 
confirmed. V. That all Settlements of the Lands belong- 
ing to any Bishopricks, Monasteries, or other Religious 
Houses, might continue as they were, without any trouble 
by ecclesiastical censures or laws.' It was also declared, 
that all suits about these lands were only to be in the Queen's 
Courts, and not in the ecclesiastical ; and if any should, 
upon the pretence of any Church Authority, disturb the 
subjects in their possessions, they were to incur a Praemu- 
nire. Upon the whole," continues my Author, (i it shows 



f Parlittm. Hist, of Eng. Vol. III. p. 325, 326, 337, 



538, 



Queen Mary. ,47 

plainly, that the Church and Ahbey Lands were not then 
redeemable by a Popish Prince, even so near their first ali- 
enation : and further, that these lands were the real bait 
which drew on the reformation. For it is plain, by the 
conduct of both Lords and Commons in this Parliament, that 
let them have but possession of these lands, and they cared 
not a straw what religion was uppermost. Since now the 
pillars of the reformation, which had beeu above thirty 
years in erecting 1 , were, by this Queen and her Parliament, 
thrown down in two.— To this we shall only add, that the 
Lords, the Commons, the Grantees, or Purchasers of 
abbey-lands, &c. were far from being disposed to imitate 
Queen Mary's example ; far from giving up an inch of 
their Robin-Hood's Pennyworths. For as Dr. Heylin ob- 
serves : 

"* The Queen had neither eloquence to persuade, nor 
power enough to awe the Parliament to this concession. 
But nothing hindered the design more than a general fear, 
that if the Popes were once restored to their former power, 
the Church might challenge restitution of her former pos- 
sessions. Do but secure them from that fear, then Pope 
and Cardinals might come and welcome." And he fur- 
ther observes : " They had a sufficient security for their 
panicks, by a promise under-hand, both from the King, 
Queen, and Cardinal Legate, who knew right-well, that 
the Church- Lands had been so chopped and changed by 
the two last kings, as not to be restored without the mani- 
fest ruin of many of the nobility, and most of the gentry, 
who were invested in the same." Add to this, what a co- 
temporary historian [Grafton] advances, viz. that 

" The Pope's most liberal Bull for a Dispensation of 
Abbey- lands being cow confirmed by Parliament, it gave 
great comfort to many, who were not without suspicions 
that this new union might cause them to lose some of their 
late cheap purchases." 

And thus, in fine, by virtue of a liberal diploma, sub 
annulo piscatoris, confirmed by an Act of Parliament, the 
nobility and gentry were entirely freed from all future ap- 
prehensions relative to their ecclesiastical purchases, and 
had the peaceable possession of abbey lands, &c. secured 
to themselves and their heirs for ever. 

* HeyUn's Hi$t. Rcf. (Q. M.) p. il. 



48> The Supremacy reclaimed by 



§ 14. — Elizabeth, in her first Parliament, reclaims the 
Supremacy, but changes the Title of Supreme Head intv 
that of Supreme Governor of the Church.. . . . A political 
Finesse, but no Abatement of her Fathers Supreme 

Power Ecclesiastical Her Supremacy is opposed by 

the Catholic Prelates and Party She publishes her 

Admonition Reflections upon it and the Change of 

the Supremacy Title. . . .Mr. Tilney's Case, $c. 

A.LTHO' the Reformation met with nothing but interrup- 
tion, disencouragement, and disfavour, as long as a Ca- 
tholic Princess enjoyed the crown, yet neither was the New 
Gospel so entirely outed, nor the Old Religion so thoroughly 
re-established, during the short period of Queen Mary\ 
reign, but that her sister Elizabeth, when exalted to the 
throne, might (and actually did) find out ways and means 
to unravel every project, and to frustrate every design that 
had, of late years, been formed in favour of the Catholic 
interest. 

At first, indeed, Q. Elizabeth seemed to be somewhat 
embarrassed, and unresolved how to proceed, or which 
way to steer. But, after some fluctuations, she determin- 
ed, at last, to effect another revolution in the Church. 

Yet this enterprise, she soon perceived, could not easily 
be accomplished, unless her powers and prerogatives were 
advanced to the height of her father's in every particular. 
Wherefore, in her first Parliament, she revived her father's 
claim to the Spiritual Supremacy over this national 
Church. The first of her sex that ever aspired to so great 
an honour ! 

" * It seem'd," says D. Heylin, " a thing abhorrent even 
in nature and policy, that a woman should be declared Su- 
preme Head on Earth of the Church of England. It was 
even f A jest to the rest of the world I But Elizabeth, it 
seems, was determined to make a serious affair of it. Power 
is a tempting bait to the ambitious ! and therefore we need 
not wonder if the most ambitious of her sex should sit upon 
thorns till such time as she was put into possession of that 
very fine thing called the Supremacy :" which, to make use 
©f D. Heylin's expression, she considered as the fairest 
jewel in the regal diadem. 

Charmed with the brilliancy of so incomparable a gem, it 
was not long before she resolved (cost what it would) to 

* HeyUn's Hist, Re/, p. 107. f Short View, p. 207, 



Q. Elizabeth. 49 

win it, and wear it too. And with this resolution she sum- 
moned the Lords and Commons to meet at Westminster. 
At which place being assembled, 

* f March 22, J559, a bill was brought into Parliament, 
(which soon passed into a law) for restoring to the Crown 
the ancient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical, and 
abolishing all foreign power repugnant to the same. By 
this act, 0UCJ) jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities, and 
pre-emiences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spi- 
ritual or ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore 
been, or may lawfully be exercised and used, for the visita- 
tion of the ecclesiastical state and persons, and for the 
reformation, order, and correction of the same, and of all 
manner of errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, con- 
tempts and enormities, shall for ever, by the authority of 
this present Parliament, be united and annexed to the Im- 
perial Crown of this realm. 

£i Then follows the clause for impowering the Queen to 
erect the High Commission-Court [of which more here- 
after} for the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. And 
by this branch, the Queen and her successors are enabled to 
assign, by Letters Patents under the Great Seal, such 
persons, and for so long a time as they shall think fit, 
(provided they are natural born subjects) for the exercising 
under the Crown all manner of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical 
Jurisdiction. Particularly by this Act the Commissioners 
are empowered to fol£lt, reform, redress, order, correct, and 
amend all such errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, 
contempts and enormities whatsoever, as by any manner of 
Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power, Authority, or Jurisdic- 
tion, can or may be lawfully reformed, ordered, redressed, 
corrected, restrained or amended, &c. 

cc Nothing can be more comprehensive than the terms of 
this clause. The whole compass of Church Discipline 
seems transferred upon the Crown. 

" And thus, by the Queen's Letters Patents, passed in 
the 18th year of her reign, her Ecclesiastical Commissioners' 
are authorized to visit, reform, correct, as well in places 
exempt as not exempt, all errors, heresies, schisms, &c. fyy 
censures ecclesiastical, deprivation, or otherwise. 

" And here it may be observed, that to make the Act 
more inoffensive, th^ title of Supreme Head was changed 
into that of Supreme Governor. 1 

f Collier's Ec*l Hist. Vol. II. Book \i. pp. 42Q ? 421 ? 
II 






50 The Supremacy reclaimed by 

But it was all one to the Parliament whether the Queen 
was pleased to style herself Head or Governor of the 
Church. " f They were not over nice about. words, so they 
might gain the point they aimed at, which was the stripping 
the Pope of all Authority within ihese dominious, and fix- 
ing- the supreme Ecclesiastical Power in the Crown Im- 
perial." 

Yet besides this, (which was indeed the main article) 
there was another point in view, another wile in reserve : 
and that was, to trepan the unguarded Catholics into a 
recognition of the Queen's Supremacy, under the cover of 
a title seemingly different from that of her father's, when, 
at the same time, her power, in all spiritual matters, was 
really the same, if not more extensive, as Mr. Fuller ob- 
serves. 

"I It was farther enacted," says he, " that all Ecclesi- 
astical Persons and Magistrates who received pensions 
from the Exchequer ; such as should take any decree in 
the Universities, &c. and such as were to be admitted into 
the Queen's service, &c. should be tied by an oath to ac- 
knowledge the Queen's Majesty to be the only and supreme 
Governor of' her kingdoms (the style of Supreme Head of 
the Church of England liked them not) in all matters and 
causes, as well spiritual as temporal — But the Papists 
complained, that the simplicity of poor people was abused, 
the Queen declining the title of Head, and assuming the 
name of Governor of the Church, which though less offen- 
sive, was more expressive. So that, while their ears were 
favoured in her waving the word, their souls were deceived 
with the same sense, under another expression" 

This the Catholic Prelates plainly perceived, and there- 
fore opposed the Supremacy Bill with all their might. 

" § This Bill having been canvassed near a month since 
jt was first sent up by the Commons, must argue strong 
debates and great Opposition to it in the House of Lords, 
Cambden tells us, that it was vigorously opposed by nine 
Bishops besides the Abbot of Westminster." Their names 
are as follow : 

Heath, Archbp. of York ; 
Bon nor, Bp. of London • 
White, Bp. of Winchester ; 
Kitchin, Bp. of Llandaff ; 

f Heylin's Hist. Ref. (Q. E.) p. 107. 

X Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book ix. pp. 52, 53. 

§ Parliamentary Hist, of Enq. Tol.'IJI. pp. S7S, 379. 



Q.Elizabeth, 51 

Bain, Bp. of Coventry ^ 

Pate, Bp. of* Worcester ; 

Turbertille, Bp. of Exeter J 

Scott, Bp. of ( tester; 

Oglethorpe, Bp. of Carlisle; and 

Feckenham, Abbot of Westminster. 
D. Heylin further observes, that in Q. blizabeth's first 
Parliament *t Two speeches were made against the Book 
[of Common Prayer] in the House of Peers, by JScdtt and 
Feckenham, and one against the Queen's Supremacy, by 
the Archbishop of York. But they prevailed little by the 

power of their eloquence." See these speeches in the 

Appendix No. V. 

However, the opposition raised against the Queen's Su- 
premacy at this juncture, by the abovementioned Prelates 
and others of the Catholic Party, prevailed so far, as to 
oblige the Queen to publish her Admonition. It is anarf- 
mirable piece, and sets forth, 

' That the Queen's Majesty being informed that some of 
her subjects found some scruple in the form of this Oath [of 
Supremacy] would that all her loving subjects should un- 
derstand that nothing was, is, or shall be meant or intended 
by the same Oath, to have any other duty or allegiance 
required by that Oath than was acknowledged to be due 
to King Henry VIII. her Majesty's father, and King 
Edward VI. her Majesty's brother. And further, her 
Majesty forbiddeth her subjects to give credit to such per- 
sons who notify to her subjects, how by the words of the 
said Oath, it may be collected that the Kings or Queens of 
this realm may challenge authority of administering the di- 
vine offices in the Church; wherein her subjects be very 
much abused. For her Majesty neither doth, nor ever will 
challenge, any other authority than that which was chal- 
lenged and lately used by King Henry and King Ednard ; 
which is, and was of ancient time, due to the Imperial 
Crown of this realm ; that is, under God, to have the 
sovereignty and rule over all manner of persons born within 
these realms, whether ecclesiastical or temporal ; so as no 
other sovereign power shall or ought to have any superiori- 
ty over them.' Thus the lioyal Monitory. - Upon which 
we shall only observe, that if the design ot its being 
made public was to cure scruples, it may very well be 
^aePtioned if ever it produced that salutary effect. For, in 

f Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 1Q8. 

Ha 



52 The Supremacy reclaimed by 

fact, it lays no restraint on the Queen's Supremacy, but, on 
the contrary, leaves it, in every respect, equal to that of 
King" Henry VI11. and King Edward VI. 

Reflections Upon the Premises. 

Now if what Mr. Collier advances upon this subject be 
true, that in Q. Elizabeth's first Parliament, the whole com- 
pass of Church Government was transferred upon the 
Crown : if King Henry VIII. (as it is the opinion of a mo- 
dern historian) challenged a power equal to Christ's : asd 
if Elizabeth claimed an authority in spiritual matters every 
jot as large and extensive as that which had been acknow- 
ledged due to King Henry VIII. her Majesty's father, a 
man, without pretending to be a conjuror, may easily guess 
at the dimensions of Q. Elizabeth' & spiritual power. We 
grant indeed, that her quirking, quibbling, equivocating 
admonition may be admired, as a notable coup de politique ; 
but we are too well acquainted with her temper, to imagine 
it was ever meant or intended to be a curb to her supremacy. 
She would never suffer any such thing to be attempted. She 
never would suffer either her Privy Council or Parliaments 
to tarnish the lustre of the brightest jewel in her crown, by 
any restrictive or derogatory clause whatsoever. 

As to the change of the style of Supreme Head into that 
of Supreme Governor of the Church, what was it but a 
distinction without & difference? For if the same power be 
as fully and largely implied in Elizabeth's title of Supreme 
Governor, as was confessed to be due to her father's title 
of Supreme Head, where is the difference in point of autho- 
rity, though the names differ ? All that can be advanced 
in favour or defence of Q. Elizabeth's new style amounts to 
nothing more tbun this, that, perhaps, it might be less lia- 
ble to exception, as D. Heylin has observed. "f The 
reformed party," says he, " fixed the Supreme Ecclesias- 
tical Power in the Crown Imperial, not by the name of Su- 
preme Head (which they perceived might be liable to some 
exceptions) but (which comes all to one) of Supreme Go- 
vernor." And if it comes all to one, then I think there's 

an end of the dispute. For when the thing Use f is grant- 
ed, what does it signify to wrangle about synonymous 
terms? What's this but a frivolous and insipid logo- 
machy ? and just as much to the purpose as to dispute De 
Ian a caprina 'i 

But that Q. Elizabeth's Supreme Power Ecclesiastical 
f Heylin's Hist. Re& (Q.E.) p. 107. 



Q. Elizabeth. 53 

was equal at least, if not superior to her father's, is clearly 
proved from the following quotation. — " In the same statute 
of Queen Elizabeth, [viz. 1 E. c. 1.] it is added, « That 
the branches, sentences, and words of the several acts 
made in King Henry the Eighth's time, and every one of 
them, shall be deemed nnd taken to extend to your High- 
ness, your heirs and successors, as fully and largely as 
ever the said acts did extend to the late King; Henry VIII. 
your Majesty's father.* "Whereby it appears," continues 
my authority, "that though the title of Head was left off, 
yet the Supreme Authority Ecclesiastical was united and 
annexed to the Imperial Crown of England in Queen Eli- 
zabeth's time, as fully and largely as ever King Henry en- 
joy'd it ; and, in some respects, more advantageously." — r. 
Vid. A Discourse on the Supreme Power Ecclesiastical, in 
Mr. Collier's Eccl Hist. V. II. B. II. p. 89. 

In fine, Q. Elizabeth, by her parasites, and particularly 
by the famous Secretary Cecil, was made believe (and per- 
haps she was not unwilling to believe) that her Spiritual 
Potter was as full and ample as the Pope's. And for a 
proof of this, we appeal to the case of Mr. Tilney, which is 
thus related by a Church Historian. "* An. Dom. 1569. 
This summer one Tilney, a gentleman, moved for a marri- 
age-dispensation. The case was at last brought into the 
Arches, where the Archbishop, the Lord Keeper, and Secre- 
tary Cecil, were present. The question was double ; whe- 
ther the case would admit of a dispensation, and if so, who 
had a right to give it ? The Secretary affirmed, the Queen 
might do it : For she, says he, may do as much as the Pope." 
Conclude we this subject with the following remark : 
" f In a Parliament called anno 1584, the Queen is affirm- 
ed by Stow to have made a speech, and therein to have told 
the Bishops, l That if they did not look more carefully to 
the discharge of their duties, she would take care to de- 
prive them.' " Sharp words, says Dr. Heylin : but he 
did not reflect, that nothing could have been uttered, upon 
the occasion, more suitable or consonant to the style and 
character of a Pontiff- Queen. 

* Collier's Ecel. Hist Vol. TI. B. Vu p. 519. 
f Heylin's Hist, Presb. L.VIII. p. 263. 



54 The Supremacy reclaimed by 



§ 15. Some Account of £/*eHigh Commission Court, and the 

Use that was made of it in Q. Elizabeth's Reign 

Mr. Collier's Observations upon it. 

otnce the High Commission Court sets Q. Elizabeth' 's 
Spiritual Power and authority in a conspicuous point of 
light ; and since it was looked upon, by the Protestant 
Dissenters of this reign, as an intolerable grievance, we 
imagined it might not be disagreeable to our reader, to be 
entertained with a succinct account of it. 

Now the origin of this High Commission is derived from 
King Henry the Eighth, who first appointed the whole bu- 
siness of his Spiritual Supremacy, and every branch of it, 
to be executed by his proxy. And who should this proxy 
be, but the celebrated Thomas Cromwell ! who (in quality 
of King's Vicar-General in Spirituals) enjoyed the unex- 
ampled deputation, and exercised it alone and without a 
rival, till he fell into disgrace, which, in a short time after- 
wards, was followed with the loss of his head. And thus fell 
the Grand Vicar of God's High Minister, as King Henry 
vouchsafed upon a solemn occasion to style himself. 
From which time the important commission became vacant, 
and continued so till this King's death. 

. In the reign of King Edward the Sixth, the reforming 
business, together with the Church Authority, fell into the 
hand of and was managed by the Lord Protector Somerset, 
and the rest of the privy council of that minor king. 

In Queen Mary's reign, reforming was out of fashion, 
and so was the Lay Supremacy. Whereupon the High Com- 
mission Court, having no business to transact, was obliged 
to lie dormant from the beginning to the end of this reign. 
But 

Q. Elizabeth, in the 18th year of her reign, issued out 
formal commissions under the Great Seal of England, to 
empower what persons soever she pleased (even without be- 
ing obliged to make use of so much as one clergyman) to 
execute the important business of her spiritual supre- 
macy. 

King James I. after he had got possession of the throne 
of England (for he durst not do it before) attempted to 
erect a high Commission Cotirt in £ cot land. But vain was 
the attempt. For it was never like to thrive on that ground 
where the Scottish Kirk had first been planted. And even 
in England, towards the latter end of his reign, the House 
cf Commons began first to call in question, and afterwards 



Q. Elizabeth. 55 

to dispute, the power and authority of the High Commis- 
sion Court. 

In the reign of King Charles the First, as soon as the 
Fanatics had got the upper hand, they took up a resoluti- 
on to remove all grievances, and this amongst the rest. 
"fThey began with taking down the Star Chamber and the 
High Commission-Court : and in the Act for taking down 
the Court of the High Commission, a clause is cunningly 
inserted, which plainly took away all coercive power which 
had been vested in the Bishops and their under officers ; 
disabling them from imposing any pain or penalty, and 
consequently from inflicting all [or any] church censures 
oil notorious sinners. Their jurisdiction being thus gone, 
it was thought convenient to strip them from having any 
place or suffrage in the House of Peers." And thus felt 
this famous court, and the Bishops along with it. — And 
now, having pursued the High-Commission Court from its 
first institution to the end of its progress, we return to Q. 
Elizabeth. 

The Nonconformists of her reign were very loud and 
very bitter in their complaints of the cruel use (as they called 
it) that was made of this Supreme Spiritual Court by Q. 
Elizabeth, her Bishops, and their under officers It fell like 
a thunder- bolt upon Cartwright, Snape, Udal, Travers, 
Penry, Barrow, Arthington ; and, in short, upon all the 
leading members of the Puritan Faction. It assumed the 
authority, not only to reform, redress, order, correct, and 
amend heretics, but likewise to condemn them to the flames. 
In fine, to dissenting Protestants of all denominations, it 
was extremely formidable, and as odious as the most rigid 
Spanish Inquisition. — But it is now time to give our reader 
a taste of the nature of it ; with which, and Mr. Colliers 
observations thereupon, we shall conclude this section. 

Bp. Burnet, in his Collection of Records, No. VII. has 
preserved a copy of one of these High- Commissions. It is 
for the Archbishopric and Province o York, and is directed 
to the following persons, viz. Francis Earl of Shrewsbury, 
Edward Earl of Darby, Thomas Earl of Northumberland, 
William Lord Evers, Sir Henry Piwcy, Sir Thomas Gar- 
grave, 6ir James Crofts, and Sir Henry Gates, Knights. 
To these were joined Edwin Sandys, D. D. Henry Hervey, 
L. D. Richard Bowes, George Brazen, Richard Kingsmate, 
and Christopher Escot, Esquires. — Upon whom, and the 
extent of their commission, Mr. Collier observes, that, 

f fftyiin's Hist. Presb, L. XIII. p. 439. 



56 The Supremacy reclaimed by 

"fAmong these fourteen commissioners there is never a 
clergyman except ng Sandys, unless Hervey, Doctor in Law, 
was authorized iw orders ; which is somewhat unlikely Not- 
withstanding t sis, any two of them are to visit all cathedrals, 
collegiate and parochial churches, and all degrees of the 
clergy, the bishops not excepted. They were empowered 
to examine them upon the articles of their belief, the quali- 
fications of their learning, and their behaviour as to morals : 
and in case they find them defective, heterodox, or irregu- 
lar, they are to proceed against them by imprisonment and 
ecclesiastical censures. Farther, their commission em- 
powers them to deliver new injunctions, to declare spiritu- 
al promotions void, to allow competent pensions to those 
who quit their livings ; to examine letters otorders, to give 
institution and induction, to convene synods, and receive 
synodals, and to excommunicate those who refuse to pay. 
To give licences to preach to those they judged qualified. 
To try the causes of deprivation, and restore such as have 
been illegally displaced. In short, their commission takes 
in the whole compass of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and 
reaches to every part of the Episcopal Function, excepting 
Ordination, Consecrating of Churches, and Officiating in 
Divine Service. Aud what is still more singular, Sandys 
the clergyman is not constituted one of the Quorum, but 
any two of the lay-commissioners are authorised to transact 
all this extraordinary business, and to exert the highest 
censures of the Church. This, as one of our historians 
[Burnet] observes, seemed a great stretch of the Queen's 
Supremacy But the author appears inclined to justify 
the commission. For he subjoins, ' J'Twas thought that 
the Queen might do that, as well as the late Chancellors did 
it in the Ecclesiastical Courts ; so that one abuse was the 
excuse for another.' But 'tis to be fear'd this plea won't 
hold; for the imitation of an ill precedent is no sufficient 
defence. Besides, lay -chancellors, tho' they sometimes 
judge what crimes deserve excommunication, yet they never 
pronounce the seutence. But these commissioners are not 
tied to the rules of Ecclesiastical Courts : their jurisdiction 
was unconfined and paramount : and therefore, as far as it 
appears, they might have pronounced the sentence of excom- 
munication, without exceeding the bounds of their drputa-? 
tion. And lastly, the Chancellors act in the Bishop's 
name, and by virtue of his commission. But these fourteen 
commissioners managed purely upon the strength of the 

f Collier'* Ecel. Hist.Yol. II. Book vi. p. 435. 
% Bur net's Hist. ReJ\ Vol. II. p. 401, 



Q. Elizabeth. 57 

regale. They had no authority but what they received from 
the Queen, who was, without question, a lay-person, and 
by consequence, could make out no claim to any share of 
the sacerdotal character, nor produce any warrant from 
our Saviour for the exercise of the keys" 



§ 16. The lamentable Consequences of Q. Elizabeth's Su- 
premacy Some Instances of her burning Heretics, 

and other Executions of Protestant Dissenters, are re- 
counted. 

J.T is reported of Q. Elizabeth, (and perhaps not without 
some foundation in w truth) that "fThe cruelty of her father 

was a little too predominant in her nature." How just 

this observation is, will be made appear from the following 
recital of some instances of the inclement use she made of 
her Spiritual Supremacy. Fire and faggot were employ* 
ed under this Queen, and much to the same purposes as in 
the preceding reigns of her father and sister : and Eliza- 
beth seems to have been as zealously intent upon the la- 
mentable business of burning heretics, &e. as either of 
ihem. To place this truth in a proper light, we shall be 
obliged to give some account of such Protestant Dissen- 
ters only as were executed, [some, says Mr. Collier, for 
denying the Queen's Sup?*emacy, and others for defaming 
the Common Vrayer-Booh^\ from the year 1575 to 1593 ; 
and whose executions are particularly described by D. 
Heylin, in his History of the Presbyterians. He begins 
ills narrative with 

Two Dutch Anabaptists. 

f* They were burnt in Smitlifteld," says be, " on the 
second of July, 1575, {An. Reg. Eliz. 18.) where they died 
with very great horror, expressed by many roarings and 
cryings, but without any sign or show of true repentance." 
— I Heylin 7 s Hist. Presb. L. vii. p. 280.] The same historian 
adds, that John Fox (the famous Pseudomartyrologist) 
addressed himself by letters to the Queen, supplicating for 
the lives of those wretched men ; but to no purpose. Nothing 
could induce them to a retractation of their damnable he- 
resies, says the Doctor. " So the forfeiture of their lives 
>?as taken, and the sentence executed." Fo% 9 however^ 

f Short View, p. 210. 



58 The Supremacy reclaimed by 

had the comfort of a fine opportunity offered him, to atVd 
two Martyrs more to his Acts and Monuments,— — The 
next Dissenting Protestant Martyr mentioned by our Au- 
thor, is 

Matthew Hammond, 

" A poor plow-wright at Featherset, within three miles 
of Norwich, — He was condemned for an heretick in the 
Bishop's Consistory on the fourteenth of April, and there- 
upon being delivered to the sheriff of the city, he was burnt 
in the Castle ditch on the twentieth of May, 1579. As a 
preparative to which punishment, his ears had been cut off 
on the thirteenth of that month, for base and slanderous 
words against the Queen and Council." — [Hist. Presb. 
L. vii. p. 280, 281.] To this poor plow-wright, other his- 
torians add Francis Ket, burnt also at Norwich for here- 
sy ; and John Lewis, burnt at the same place, and for the 
same crime. — See Mr. Collier 's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. B. vi. 
p. 5S1, 582 ; and Mr. Fuller s Church Hist. B. ix. p. 169. 

Elias Thacker and John Copping, (two Brownists.) 

" The first was hanged at Bury (St. Edmund^) on the 
fourth of June, and the latter on the sixth of the same 
month. Their crime was, for spreading certain books, se- 
ditiously penned by Robert Brown, against the Book of 
Common Prayer, established by the laws of this realm ; as 
many of their books as could be found being burnt before 
them. "—-To this account Mr. Collier is pleased to add, that 
" Many of his [JS/'owrc's] followers continued unreclaimed, 
and suffered death for their mispersuasion." 

Now, if so many irreclaimable Brownists suffered upon 
this occasion, perhaps the curious may enquire, c What 

* became of Brown himself, the famous author of a new 

* sect?' — Be it known then, that this new gospeller saved 
his neck from the halter by a lucky circumstance ; and that 
was, " His being a near kinsman by his mother to the Lord 
Treasurer Burleigh" as D. Heylin informs us. 

But if this short answer should not prove satisfactory to 
our reader, we shall give him a more explicit account of 
this noted man and his gospel, from the Doctor's History of 
the Presbyterians. 

i{ For the better clearing up of which matter, we must 
fetch the story of this Brown a little higher, and carry it a 
little lower down than this present year (1582.) This Ro- 
bert Brown was horn at 1 olethorp, in the county of Rut- 
land, the grand-child of Francis Brown, Esq. privileged 



Q< Elizabeth. 59 

in the 18th year of K. Henry VIII. to wear his cap in the 
presence of the Kinghimself, or any other lords, spiritual 
or temporal, in the land, and not to put it off at any time, 
but only for his own ease and pleasure. He was bred some 
time in Corpus Ckristi College (commonly called Bennet 
College) in the University of Cambridge, where though he 
was not known to take any degree, yet he would many times 
venture into the pulpit. It was observed, that in his 
preaching he was very vehement. He joined himself to 
those with whom the government of the Church of England 
passed for antichristian ; her sacraments affirmed co be de- 
filed with superstition ; her liturgy reproached for popish, 
and in some parts heathenish ; and finally, her ordinations 
to be no better than those of BaaVs priests amongst the 
Jews. Not able to abide longer in a church so impure and 
filthy, he puts himself over into Zealand, and joins with 
Cartwrightfs new church in the city of Middlehorongh. 
But finding there some remainders of the old impiety, he 
resolves to constitute a new church of his own project- 
ment, which should have nothing in it but what was pure 
and holy. The draught whereof he comprehended in a book 
which he printed at Middlehorongh , an. 1582, entitled, A 
Treatise of Reformation. And having sent as many of 
them into England as might serve his turn, he followed 
after in pursuit of his new plantation. The Dutch had 
then a church at Norwich, Amongst them he begins ; and 
having gotten some authority amongst the Dutch, whose 
language he had learned when he lived in iSiddleborough, 
he began to practise upon the English. — Of each nation he 
began to gather churches to himself, of the last especially ; 
inculcating nothing more to his simple auditors, than that 
the church of England had so much of Rome, that there was 
no place left for Christ, or his gospel. But more particu- 
larly he inveighed against the government of the Bishops, 
the ordination of ministers, the offices, rites, and ceremo- 
nies of the public Liturgy. Hereupon followed a defection 
from the church (of England) itself; not as before, amongst 
the Presbyterians, from some offices in it. Brown^s fol- 
lowers (which from him took the name of Brownists) refus- 
ing obstinately to join with any congregation.- -This was 
the first gathering of churches which 1 find in England; 
and for the justifying whereof, he caused his books to be 
dispersed in most parts of the realm [And for the dispers- 
ing whereof ihacker and Copping suffered the law, as we 
have already taken notice.] But to put an end to our 
story : Brown at last, tho' not till he had passed thro' 

12 



60 The Supremacy reclaimed by 

two and thirty prisons, as he used to brag, died in North- 
ampton JoWr^Hist. Presb. L. VII, p. 295, 296, 297. 

Thus one Reformation as naturally begets another, as/ 
cold engenders hail. Brown thought himself and hi& doe- 
trine pure enough to reform, redress t correct ,. and amend, 
not only the church of England, but the very Puritans 
themselves. And as fcr the gathering of the churches, it is 
a mistake, to suppose that Brown was the first in that bu- 
siness. He only followed the footsteps of those that had 
gathered before hipi. At present, however, nothing seems 
to be more in vogue than the gathering of new churches. 
Go where you will, you are sure to meet with some of 
these dexterous gatherers of contributions as well as prose- 
lytes. And of these gathering predicants, it is to be ex- 
pected we shall never see an end, as long as the godliness 
they preach up is productive ol i gain. 

Hacket, Coppinger, and Arthington, 

Coppinger is styled by D. Heylin, " A gentleman of a 
very good family," and Hacket " An inconsiderable fel- 
low, both for parts and fortune." But what his parts 

had denied him, was abundantly supplied from the spirit of 
enthusiasm, with which he was heated to a prodigious de- 
gree, if all be true that our Historian relates of him : for he 
tells us, that Hacket took it into his head to pass for "The 
very angel which should come before the day of judgment, 
with his fan in the one hand, and his shepherd's crook in the 
other, to distinguish the sheep from the goats, to tread 
down Satan, and ruin the kingdom of Antichrist. —He or- 
dains Coppinger to be his prophet of mercy, and Arthington 
to be his prophet of justice. — Their commission was to pro- 
claim Hacket the only supreme monarch of the world, 
which they did in Cheapside, London." Soon after this 
mad prank, the angel and his pseudo-prophets are seized 
and imprisoned. "Hacket is afterwards arraigned, July 
26, and two days after drawn to his execution, which was 
to be done upon him in that part of Cheapside in which his 
two prophets had proclaimed him, and where accordingly 
he was turned off the ladder, and presently cut down, ript 
up, and quartered, according to the law in that behalf.— 
Coppinger, by a wilful abstinence, starved himself in pri- 
son within a few days after. But Arthington lived to see 
his error, and was pardoned upon his repentance." — Hist, 
Presb. L. IX. p. 307, 308, 309. 



Q. Elizabeth. 61 

Barrow and (Greenwood. 

" It was in the month of November, 1587, that Henry 
Barrow, Gentleman, and John Greenwood, Clerk, were 
publickly convened before the High Commissioners, for 
holding and dispersing many schismatical opinions and 
seditious doctrines.- On the 21 of March they were indict- 
ed, and being found gnilty, had sentence of death pro- 
nounced upon them March 23. They were both hanged at 
Tyburn on the 6th of April."— Mist. Presb. L. IX. p. 322, 
323, 324, 325. 

Penry. 

" In May next following Penry is brought upon his 
trial. He was apprehended by the Vicar of Stepney, com- 
mitted prisoner, condemned, and executed not long after, 
at S. Thomas of Waterings; but executed with a very thin 
company attending him, for fear the fellow might have 
raised some tumult, either in going to the gallows, or upon 
the ladder. But what he could not do when he was alive, 
was put into a way of being effected when the hangman had 
done his office, by publishing one of his seditious pam- 
phlets, intitled, The History of Corah, Dathan, and Ahi- 
ram, applied to the Prelacy and Ministry of the Church 
of England. By Mr. John Penry, a Martyr of Jesus 
Christ r 

After this recital of the title-page, D. Heylin proceeds to 
give us some account of the Author, from the Preface to 
the pamphlet in question ; part of which 1 shall beg leave to 
detail. 

" We are told in the Preface of it," says our Historian, 
f That Mr. John Penry was a godly man, learned, zealous, 
and of a most christian carriage and courage. That he was 
born and bred in the mountains of Wales, and with all 
godly care and labour endeavoured to have the gospel 
preached amongst his country men, whose case he greatly 
seemed to pity, wanting all the ordinary means for salvati- 
on. That being used by God for a special instrument of the 
manifestation of his truth, he was hardly in treated, im- 
prisoned, condemned, and executed, and so suffered mar- 
tyrdom for the name of Christ He was judged on the 

25th of the 5th month, and executed at S. thomas of Wa- 
terings, near London, on the 29th of the same, in the year 
of our God 1593.' — "And in the Postscript to the same he 
concludes it thus, viz. c That he was apprehended, ad- 
judged, and executed for writing for the truth of Christ, 



62 The Supremacy reclaimed by 

whatsoever other things were pretended against him.' " — 
Hist, Presb. h.IX. p. 325, 3*26. 

Thus Q. Elizabeth made many Martyrs, as they were 
generally called (and esteemed as such) by the opposite 
party : and her Supi^emacy, like a two-edged sword, (and 
very like her father's) drew blood from dissenting Protes- 
tants as well as Catholics. 



§ 17. Mr. Collier's Account of a sanguinary Paper pre- 
sented to Q. Elizabeth by the House of Commons, where- 
in she is petitioned to dispatch the unfortunate Mary, 
Queen of Scots. 

.Out notwithstanding these severe checks, the Puritans 
(thro' the powerful patronage of the great Earl of Leicester, 
and some others of their friends at court) obtained admit- 
tance into the House of Commons; where (considering 
their well-known affection for crowned heads) it is not im- 
probable but they might, perhaps, have had a hand in that 
sanguinary paper (as my Author styles it) or Petition, 
which was presented with an intention to prevail upon the 
hesitating Elizabeth to accelerate the execution of the un- 
fortunate Queen of Scots, whose guilt they pretended to 
prove from the plain word of God. Mr. Collier has left 
us a specimen of their fanatical arguments upon this me- 
lancholy subject, with which, and his answers to them, we 
beg leave, for a while, to entertain our reader. 

"fThe House of Commons," says our historian, "came 
to a resolution, that the speedy trial of the Queen of Scots 
for high treason was necessary for the safety and preserva- 
tion of the Queen's person. And to prevail with her to se- 
cond this extraordinary motion, a paper was put into her 
hands upon this argument. — There is something in the 
paper which supposes it to be written, or suggested at 
least, by some Bishop. But whoever was the author, the 
reasoning is weak and sanguinary. To give the reader a, 
part of the substance of it. 

" The text of S. Paul to the Romans [Rom. xiii.] is al- 
ledged to shew that the magistrate is God's minister for 
the punishment of evil-doers. But what then ? This pu- 

t Collier's Eccllftst, Yol II, B.vr. p.o36. 



Q. Elizabeth. 63 

nishment ought to be executed on none but subjects, and not 
stretched to princes independent of the government. In 
the second place it is observed, that Saul lost God's pro- 
tection, and had the crown transferred from his family, for 
sparing Agag, King of the Amalehites, [1 Sam. xv.] But 
here the author forgot to take notice, that Saul had an ex- 
press command to destroy the Amalehites, without excep- 
tion of persons. The third reason affirms, that every good 
prince ought to pursue those to death, who endeavour to 
debauch the people of God in their religion, and mislead 
them to idolatry. This is endeavoured to be made good 
from Deuteronomy xiii. where the nearest relations are 
commanded to be delated, and executed for such apostasy. 
In answer to this I observe, First, that there is no drawing 
a parallel between Popery and Paganism. Secondly, there is 
no arguing from the Old to the New Testament. The gospel 
is a much gentler dispensationthan the law. And therefore 
the disciples who went upon the precedent of Elias, and 
called fire upon those of a different religion, are reprimand- 
ed by our Saviour, and charged with ignorance. 

" The instance of Joshua's killing the five kings dragged 
out of a cave [Josh, x.] is miserably misapplied: for the 
Queen of Scots was neither enemy nor prisoner of war. She 
came into England upon Q. Elizabeth's invitation, and in 
confidence of protection. 

" Elijah's killing the prophets of Baal [1 Kings xviii.] 
is alledged as another reason for dispatching the Queen of 
Scots. But this Princess, notwithstanding the clamour 
made against her, had done nothing that might bring her 
to so scandalous a parallel. Besides, Elijah was under a 
supernatural direction, and had a warrant from God Al- 
mighty for these extraordinary proceedings. That he did 
nothing without an immediate commission from God, ap- 
pears by his bringing down fire upon the sacrifice in so mi- 
raculous a manner. 

" The paper has several other arguments ; but what 
has been observed may sufficiently show the unwarrantable- 
ness of the principles it goes upon." — However, from Scrip- 
ture thus shamefully distorted, and thus miserably misap- 
plied, Elizabeth, it seems, was induced to sacrifice to her 
own more than human perfidiousness, perhaps as accom- 
plished a Princess, as ever wore a diadem. 

1 shall not mortify the reader or myself, with attempting, 
in this place, a description of the last act of this most 
shocking and deplorable tragedy. The sight of Majesty in 
distress, and in the last distress, has something in it above 



64 The Supremacy reclaimed by 

the power of language to describe, or the energy of words 
to express ! Let us, then, draw the veil over this melan- 
choly scene, and let it suffice to be told, 

"f That the manner of this Queen's death, her resignati- 
on to the will of God, her greatness of spirit, which seem- 
ed^upported by some other power than the common assist- 
ance of natural courage, have recommended her name to 
the veneration of future ages, and covered the authors of 
this barbarous cruelty with indelible infamy and reproach." 



§ 18. The Difference of Q. Elizabeth's BeJtaviour towards 
the Catholics and Puritans. 

W hich of these two parties bid the fairest for court-fa- 
vours in Q.Elizabeth's reign, D. Heylin has determined in 
his History of the Reformation (p. 302), where he informs 
us, that *' The Presbyterians had many powerful friends at 
court, in which the Papists had scarce any but mortal ene- 
mies. Spies and intelligencers were employed to attend 
them, and to observe all their words and actions ; so that 
they could not stir without a discovery. But all men's eyes 
were shut up as to the other party ; so that they might do 
what they liked, without observation." 

But this is only a sketch of Elizabeth's favour to one par- 
ty, and of her aversion to another. We shall therefore, for 
the reader's farther satisfaction, endeavour to fill up the 
outlines, and finish thepicture. And to begin with the Ca- 
tholics. 

Hard was the fate of these men, against whom the sword 
of persecution raged with uncommon fury, from the begin- 
ning to the end of this long reign ! Nothing less than their 
utter ruin and destruction seems to ha\e been determined on 
at court, and devised by the parliament 1 Then bloody 
penal laws were first enacted, and pushed to execution 
against the Catholics. Then racks and tortures were made 
use of, to force them to confess plots that were never by 
them concerted, and treasons which they never dreamed of. 

"X Leicester, Walsingham, and others, who had al- 
ready tasted the sweetness of confiscations, designed to 
make that (i. e. the Catholic) party desperate by ill usage, 
in hopes that they would rebel, and forfeit their estates ; 
but when truth enough could not be found against them, 

fSlwrt View, p. 224. % Ibid. p. 218, 



Q. Elizabeth. G5 

Wokingham, by counterfeit letters, and confessions ex- 
torted by the pains and terrors of the rack, tuinultuated the 
people with chimerical dangers ! 

But these dangers, as chimerical as they were, gave 
birth, however, to real tragedies. All the jails and pri- 
sons in the nation were crowded with Popish Priests and 
Popish Recusants ; of whom, such as escaped the gallows, 
were doomed to suffer a languishing imprisonment for life, 
or to submit to the inconveniences of a perpetual banish- 
ment. It is needless to particularize or enlarge upon the 
woful subject of persecution. I take no pleasure in 
ripping up old sores, or repeating grievances long since 
complained of, and I wish I could say, forgot. If the 
reader requires any farther satisfaction in this matter, he 
will find it in a work lately published, and entitled, Me- 
moirs of the Missionaries. It is sufficient, in this place, to 
take notice, that the Profession of the Catholic Religion 
was actually accounted a state-crime, and that Elizabeth's 
penal laws made it high treason to pray to God after the old 
fashion, or to serve him as her and their ancestors had done 
before them ! 

"f These severe laws," says a modern historian, " drove 
the Catholicks here to very great straits. Many of them 
stole out of the kingdom ; and if the laws had been put in 
full execution against them, in all probability we should not 
have had one ancient Popish Family residing in it at this 
day." — For, as he farther observes, (and it is an observation 
which other historians have made before him) " There never 
was a Parliament summon d during this long reign, wherein 
the Catholicks were not remarkably struck at." — To such a 
prodigious height did this revengeful Queen carry her im- 
placable resentment and malice against them ! 

"jBut there was another party in the kingdom, whom it 
was necessary to guard against, and that was the Puri- 
tans. The Queen was very well acquainted with their 
principles ; but the nobler game of Popery being then in 
full cry, these were tolerated. — And not only tolerated, but 
encouraged and caressed too: undoubtedly for their nim - 
ble joining with the rest of the pack then in full cry against 
Popery. This was their great, and indeed their only merit. 
This was the very thing that procured them a considerable 
number of abettors in the House of Commons, and not a 
lew friends at the council board. Among the latter were the 

f Parliamentary I fist, of Enq. Yol. IV, p. im. I Idem, ibid. 

K 



66 The Supremacy reclaimed by Q. Elizabeth. 

Earl of Leicester, Lord Burleigh, Sir Frauds Waking- 
ham, Sir Francis Knondes (sometime a disciple of Calvin, 
at Geneva) and Robert Beal, Esq. clerk of the council, and 
a fiery Puritan, whose character D. Heylin (H. R. p. 30*2) 
has drawn in miniature as follows : " This Beal was in 
himself a most eager Puritan, trained up by Walsinghqm 
to draw dry-foot [i.e. to hunt like a blood-hound] after 
Priests and Jesuites, his extreme hatred to these men be- 
ing' looked upon as the only good quality which he cauld 
pretend to." 

Add to this, that not a few of the clergy who were well 
known to be puritanically inclined, were admitted to 
church -preferments and fat livings. To gfive some instan- 
ces. The famous bigotted Puritan John Fox was made a 
Prebendary of Salisbury. Whittingham was advanced to 
the Deanry of Durham. Humphreys, Coverdale, and 
others, had gentle usage. Their preaching- was overlook- 
ed, and they were suffered to hold their preferments. Pack- 
hurst, Sandys, and Pilkington, Bishops of Nanvick r Wor- 
cester, and Durham, leaned very much to the Dissenters* 
side. And the chair of Canterbury (upon Parker's demise) 
was filled with the person of Doctor Grindal, translated 
from York : a man very zealously affected to the n$me of 
Calvin, says D. Heylin. 

It is true, indeed, that some of Q. Elizabeth?* prelates,, 
(and Archbishop Whilgift above all the rest) were very 
sanguine and severe against the Nonconformists. 

" The obstinacy of these men (says D. Heylin, H. R. 
Q. E. p. 144) in matter of ceremony, prompted the bi- 
shops to make trial of their orthodoxy in points of dactrine. 
Whereupon the Articles of Religion lately agreed upon 
were required to be subscribed to in all places, with threat- 
ening no less than deprivation to such as wilfully refused. 
Many there were that boggled at it, but yet not so per- 
versely, nor in such great numbers, as when their faction 
was grow.] strong*, and improved to multitudes. 

" Some stumbled at it, in regard of the first clause added 
to the twentieth article about the Authority of the Church. 
Others in reference to the thirty sixth, touching the Con- 
secration of Archbishops and Bishops. Some thought they 
attributed more Authority to the Supreme Magistrate over 
all persons and causes, both ecclesiastical and civil, than 
could consist with that Independency which Calvin ar- 
rogated to his Presbyters. And others looked upon the 
homilies as beggarly rudiments, scarce milk for babes : but 



* 



Conclusion of the first Part. 67 

by no means to be looked upon as meat for a stronger sto- 
mach. In general, thought by the Genevans and Zuinglian 
gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope, and too 
little of Calvin ; and therefore no way to be subscribed to. 

" Of which number, none so much remarkable as Father 
John Fox, the Martyrologist, who had before appeared in 
the schism at Frankfort, and left that church, when Cox 
had got the better in it, to retire to Geneva : who being 
called upon to subscribe, he is said to have appeared before 
the Bishop carrying the New Testament in Greek with him ; 
before whom he spoke these words : * To this Book will I 
subscribe; and if this Will not serve, lake my Prebend at 
Salisbury, the only preferment which I hold in the Church 
of England; and much good may it do you.' But, not- 
withstanding this refractory answer, so much kindness was 
shewed him, that he kept both his resolution and his place 
together." 

It is also true, that Q. Elizabeth, in the 42d year of her 
reign, issued out special commissions to both the provinces 
of Canterbury and York, to suppress the Puritans and 
their conventicles ; but without effect. For it was too late 
to begin to curb them, When they were effectually grown 
too high and mighty for the High- Commission -Court itself 
to reach them. But for this the Queen might thank herself. 
Her Majesty, it seems, was so eagerly beut upon the total 
extirpation of the Catholic party, as to connive at and ne- 
glect all along the visible increase of the Puritans ; who, to 
testify their gratitude for such distinguishing favours, cut out 
work enough for her to the end of her reign. After whose 
death, augmenting in numbers as well as power, it was not 
long before they found themselves strong enough to bring 
o-n another Revolution in the Church, which ended in a 
total subversion of Episcopacy and the Common-Prayer. 



§ 19.— Conclusion of the First Part. 

W £ shall conclude the first part of these Memoirs with a 
brief inquiry into the motives that influenced the commence- 
ment, nnd the methods pursued in the management of the 
great business of reforming the Religion of England. And 
with regard to the first : 

It plainly appears from impartial history, that the motives 
which animated the first projectors of a Reformation, were 

Iv2 



68 Conclusion of the first ParL 

not. so primitive, nor their views so disinterested, as might 
have been wished, or expected at least, in so extraordinary 
an undertaking. 

" f That the enterprize was not carried on without secular 
views, may be fairy conjectured by the issue." — And indeed 
it is as plain as any thins? need be in history, that secular 
views were constantly and invariably pursued through the 
three first reforming reigns. It is a truth which, without 
much difficulty, may be demonstrated by induction. 

To begin with the reign of King Henry the Eighths In 
order to account for this monarch's revolt from the Church 
in which he was christened, what other motives arealledged 
(>y our historians, but these that follow ? viz. His bound- 
less prodigality and profusion. His eager and impetuous 
desire to gratify a lawless passion, and his determined re- 
solution to be revenged, at any rate, on the great obstacle 
of his d( sites. Thus was Henry induced to open the way to 
the Reformation. Not out of a motive of piety, but out of 
politic end*. — See part of D. Heylin^s Preface to his Histo- 
ry of the Reformation, quoted in the Introduction, (p. 2) 
which we think needless and unnecessary to be repeated 

x here. -To descend to the next reign : 

The main spring that gave motion to the whole machine 
of Reformation, during the short reign of King Edward the 
Sixth, what was it but the holy thirst of gold ? This is 
candidly owned by D. Heylin, in his History of the Reforma- 
tion, (A. 4. R.E. VI.) where, without mincing the mat- 
ter, he lells us plainly, " That the consideration of profit 
did advance this work as much as any other, if perchance 
not more." — Anil in his Preface to the same History : "It 
may well be thought," says he, " that coveto usness spurred 
on this business more than zeal; there being none of the 
images so poor and mean, the spoil whereof would not af- 
ford some gold and silver, if not jewels also ; besides cen- 
sers, candlesticks, and many other rich utensils appertain- 
ing to them." — And again, in the same Preface, we are 
told, that 

" Some great men about the. court [of King Edward] 
under colour of removing such corruptions as remained in 
the Church, had cast their eyes upon the spoils of shrines 
and images, and improving of their own fortunes by the 
ohantery lands ; all which they most sacrilegiously divided 
among themselves." 

f Collier's Feci ffist. Vol. II. Book vi. p. 443. 



.- 



Conclusion of the first Part. 69 

Images, shrines, and chantery lands, being thus reform- 
ed away, what else could be expected, now their hands 
were in, but that the altars should follow them ? as in- 
deed they did. For the proposal for pulling down altars, 
&c. was quickly embraced, and as nimbly executed by the 
professors of Zuinglianism, who then ruled the roast. 

" The Zuinglian gospellers," continues ray author, 
" fell at last upon the altars which were left standing by 
the rules of the Liturgy. The touching upon this string 
made excellent musick to most of the grandees of the 
court, who had before cast many an envious eye on the 
costly hangings, that massy plate, and other rich and pre- 
cious utensils which adorned those altars. Besides, 

there was no small spoil to be made of copes, in which the 
priests officiated at the holy sacrament, some of them being 
of cloath of tissue, ofcloath of gold arid silver, or embroi- 
dered velvet ; the meanest being made of silk or sattin, with 
some decent trimming. And might not these be handsome- 
ly converted to private uses, to serve as carpets to their 
tables, coverlets to their beds, and cushions to their chairs 
and windows ?" — Thus D. Heylin, in the Pref. to his Hist, 
lief. 

But what we are going to relate from the body of his 
history, is something, if possible, still more surprising. 

i( f As the Grandees of the Court," says he, " intended 
to defraud the King of so great a booty, and the Commis- 
sioners to put a cheat upon the Court Lords who employed 
them in it : so they were both prevented, in some places, 
by the lords and gentry of the country, who thought the 
altar-cloaths, together with the copes and plate of their 
several churches, to be as necessary for themselves as for 
any others." 

Thus the Grandees and the Court Lords, the Commis- 
sioners and the Country Gentlemen, enter into a combina- 
tion to cheat one. anoiher, and defraud the King. And 
thus the) went on, belter skelter, spoiling and ravaging 
altars, and appropriating the holy plunder to prophane uses, 
as long as Edward lived. And these were the godly motives 
that inspired th s godly King and his ministry with a notion 
of Reforming tbe Church ! 

As for Q. Elizabeth, it may well be doubted, if, in this 
great business, her riezcs were less secular than her bro- 
ther's, or. .the ends she ahnedrat were less politic than those 
ol her father. By the Reformation which she had time 

f 11 cyan's Hist. lUf. p,l<)o. 



70 Conclusion of the first Part. 

enough to establish, she acquired a very considerable acces- 
sion both of power and profit. For as, on the one hand, the 
power of her Supremacg enabled her to plunder the Church, 
and even to put it under something* as bad as military exe- 
cution ; so, on the other hand, no small profit accrued from 
the unmerciful depredations she committed on English Bi- 
shoprics ; by transferring the best part of their revenues 
(and sometimes the whole) to the crown, in virtue of a long 
sede vacante : of which D. Heylin more than once (and very 
justly) complains, in his History sf the Reformation. — 
[See Part II. of these Memoirs, § 10.] But we shall here 
give the reader a taste of Elizabeth's Religious Piracy, 
from another Ecclesiastical Historian. 

" f As to the service of religion, 1 am sorry I cannot say 
her conduct was altogether so happy. She restored the refor- 
mation, 'tis true, but, in many places, left little provision to 
maintain it. She drew back the patrimony of the Church, 
restored by her sister Queen Alary, and reached somewhat 
unkindly into the remainder. To give an instance farther 
of the depredations during this reign : The Bishoprick of 
Ely, after Cox's death, was kept vacant near twenty years. 
And when the see was filled, the next successor, Beaton, 
found most of his manors wrested from it. Sir John Har- 
rington confesses this kind of management was reckoned 
one of the blemishes of this reign. The taking away the 
Bishops' lands, and returning the lamentable exchange of 
Impropriations, was a great blow to the Church.— If 'tis 
said, Queen Elizabeth had an Act of Parliament to justify 
her taking away the Bishops' lands, I grant she had so : 
but then it must be considered, her Majesty had solemnly 
sworn [at her coronation] to maintain the clergy in their 
rights and privileges : the difficulty, therefore, will be, 
to reconcile her passing this Bill with the Coronation Oath. 
However, the knot was cut and the scruple master' d : and 
which is more, the Act was driven home in the execution. 
These things consider'd, if this Queen's usage of the Cler- 
gy was compar'd with what they met with in the reign o£ 
King Henry VIII. 'tis to be fear'd it might be said, 
Her little finger was thicker than her father's loins : and 
that he disciplined them with whips, but she chastised them 
with scorpions . " 

From this account of the righteous motives, proceed we, 
in the next place, to take a cursory view of the no less 
righteous methods of reforming the Church. 

f Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. B. \ii. p. 609. 



Conclusion of the first Part. 71 

Now these methods appear, at first sight, to have been 
formed upon a Gothic Plan, and executed in the same taste. 
Such plundering of churches, and such a prodigious de- 
vastation of the pious monuments of religious antiquity, as 
is scarce to be paralleled in any history, must needs give 
every dispassionate and unprejudiced person a frightful 
idea of the spirit and genius of our reformers ! 

"f To see noble structures, consecrated to the honour of 
the ever blessed Trinity, where all the articles of the Apos- 
tles' Creed were professed, the Christian Sacraments ad- 
ministered, and all the Inspired Writings received as such ; 
placed where there was no polytheism, no addressing de- 
vils, no roasting of children, no licentious worship so much 
as pretended ; in short, where there was no resemblance of 
a parallel with the Heathen Idolatry mentioned in the Old 
and New Testament : I say, to see the houses of God 
thus ravaged and razed, the holy furniture made plunder, 
and the church estates seized, gives a frightful idea of some 
of these reformers : and to consider the fact, without know- 
ing the whole history, would almost make a man believe 
some rough, uncultivated nation, had made an invasion, and 
carried the country !" 

To this general observation of our author, upon the 
rough method of reforming, we beg leave to subjoin the fol- 
lowing particular instance. 

" X When the Abby of Leicester was surrender^, Cave, 
one of the commissioners, informs Cromwell, that himself 
and the other visitors had made a sale of the ornaments of 
the church, amounting to 2*28 pounds, besides the plate, 
lead, bells, &c. From hence he proceeds to desire the 
Vicar General's order for defacing the church, and other 
superstitious buildings. " 

And thus fell Leicester Abbey ! but not alone. Many 
noble structures, as well as this, were involved in the same 
general massacre !. Of all which, little or nothing now 
remains, either to entertain the inquisitive, or to recom- 
pense the laborious researches of the most industrious an- 
tiquary ! 

And now, to sum up the evidence in as few words as 
possible, let it be remembered, that King Henry Y1I1. 
raised disturbances in the Church out of politic ends ; that 
the Grandees under King Edward VI. commenced a Re- 

f- Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. IT. B. vi. p. 471. 
t Ibid. Vol. II. B.iii. p. 161. 



72 Conclusion of the first Part. 

for several ends, though their principal end was to create 
estates, or to improve their < /b/'£tftt££out of the spoil of ritied 
churches ; and thatQ. Elizabeth found her account in dila- 
pidating cathedral churches and seizing upon bishops' lauds. 
This indeed was the only mischief she could do the Church, 
the abbies, monasteries, chanteries, &c. having been 
plundered and destroyed before she came to the crown : 
otherwise, in all probability, she would have spared theni 
no more than her father and brother did. 

We have nothing more to add, by way of elucidation, to 
this subject, but Mr. Collier's sentiments upon the disedi- 
fying conduct of King Henry the Eighth and his reforming 
children. 

"t It must be confessed," says he, " there were several 
shocking circumstances in the reign of King Henry VIII. 
and his children [Edward and Elizabeth.] For to see 
churches pulled down or rifled, the plate swept off the al- 
tar, and the holy furniture converted to common use, had 
no great air of devotion. To see the choir undressed, to 
make the drawing-room and bed-chamber fine, was not 
very primitive at first sight. The forced surrender of 
abbies, the maiming of bishopricks, and lopping the best 
branches of their revenues, the stopping of impropriated 
tithes from passing into the ancient channel: unless a 
man's understanding is more than ordinarily improved, 
he'll beat a loss to reconcile these measures with Christian 
maxims, and make them fall in with Conscience and Refor- 
mation." 

And from these candid concessions we may infer : That 
if no one must pretend to reconcile the shocking circumstan- 
ces bf K.- Henry-% K. Edward's, and Q. Elizabeth's Re- 
formations, and their unprimitive measures with Christian 
measures, or Conscience with Reformation, but such only 
as are endowed with more than ordinary improvements of 
learning, and uncommon capacities, very few, we may pre- 
sume, will be found equal to the task. 

f Collier's Eecl. Hist. Vol. II. B.iii. p. 1433.; 



THE END OF THE FIRST PART, 



78 



APPENDIX, 

No. I. 

Vcvrt of Pope Clement VII.'* Letter to King Henry VIII. 

i^l atvi ex iis quas pro Vo'bis facere doctorum hominum 
atque'Universitatum Opiniones scribitis, paucae adinodum 
venerant in m alius nostras, Nobis non legitime, nee Regis 
Nomine, ab Oratoribus praesentatse ; illa&que nudae tantum 
illorum hominum Opiniones, nullis adscriptis Rationibus 
cur ita seutiant, nullaque Sacrorum Canonum et Scriptu- 
ra?, quae tantum spectare debemus, Authoritate subnixae. — 
Vomer's Collec. of Records, No. XV. 



No. II. 



tVe are indebted to my Lord Herbert for the following 
dissuasive harangue. It was spoke, he assures us, by one 
-of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy 'Council ; but 
what was this Privy Counsellor's name the reader must not 
expect to be told by us, because it seems to be oneof those 
secrets which, we suppose, it was not m Ins Lordship's 
power to communicate to any body. So our noble histori- 
an contents himself with informing us, that it was made by 
one who much favoured the Pxtpai Authority ; which, in- 
deed, may be easily conjectured from the nature of his 
style and argumentation. But whoever was the author of 
the speech wc are going to recount, or whatever was hk 
name, (which is not very material to know) at 'least he is 
said to have addressed himself to the King at the Council- 
board as follows :; 
" Sir, 
<c Your Highness is mow come to a point which needs a 
strong and firm resolution ; it being not only the most im- 
portant in itself that scan be presented to this honourable 
board, but likewise of that consequence, that it will com- 
prehend your kingdom and posterity. It is, ' Whether, in 
this business of your divorce and second marriage, as weH 
as in all other ecclesiastical affairs in your dominions, you 
will make use of your own or the Pope's authority?' For 
my awn part, as an Englishman, and your Highness'.* 



71 ' Appendix, 

subject, 1 must wish all power in your Highness, But 
when I consider the ancient practice of this kingdom, I 
cannot but think any innovation dangerous. For, if in 
every temporal estate it be necessary to come to some su- 
preme authority, whence all inferior magistracy should be 
derived, it seems more necessary in religion ; both as the 
body thereof seems more susceptible of a head than anyelse 5 
and as that head again must direct many others. We 
should therefore, above all things, labour to keep an unity 
in the parts thereof, as being the sacred bond which knits 
and holds together, not its own alone, but all other govern- 
ment. But how much, Sir, shall we recede from the 
dignity thereof, if we (at once) retrench this its chief 
and most eminent part? And who ever liked that body 
long, whose head was taken away ? Certainly, Sir, an 
authority received for many ages ought not rashly to 
be rejected. For is not the Pope Communis Pater (the 
common Father) in the christian world, and arbiter of their 
differences ? Does he not support the majesty of religion, 
and vindicate it from neglect ? Does not the holding his 
authority from God keep men in awe, not of temporal alone, 
but of eternal punishments, and therein extend his power 
beyond death itself ? And will it be secure, to lay aside 
those potent means of reducing people to their duty, and 
trust only to the sword of justice, and secular arms ? Be- 
sides, who shall mitigate the rigour of the laws, in those 
cases which may admit of exception, if the Pope be taken 
away ? Who shall presume to give orders, or administer 
the sacraments of the Church ? Who shall be the deposi- 
tory of the oaths and leagues of princes ? or fulminate 
against the perjured infractors of them ? For my part (as 
affairs now stand) I find not how either general peace 
amongst princes, or any equal moderation in human, affairs, 
can be well conserved without him. For as his court is a 
kind of chancery to all the other courts of justice in the 
christian world, so, if you take it away, you subvert that 
equity and conscience, which should be the rule and inter- 
preter of all laws and constitutions whatsoever. I will con- 
clude, that 1 wish your Highness (as my King and Sove- 
reign) all true greatness and happiness, but think it not fit 
(in this case) that your subjects should either examine by 
what right ecclesiastical government is innovated, or inquire 
how far they are bound thereby ; since, beside that it might 
cause division, and hazard the overthrow both of the one 
and the other authority, it would give that offence and 
scandal abroad, that foreign princes would both reprove 



No. IJI. 75 

and disallow all our proceedings in this kind, and, upon 

occasion, be disposed easily to join against us." Lord 

Herbert's Life of King Henry the Eighth, p. 390. 



No. III. 

Extract of a Discourse concerning- the Royal Supreme 
Power Ecclesiastical, which Mr. Collier tells us he found 
in the Paper Office ; adding, at the. same time, this re- 
mark, that " '7Ys drawn up with advantage by a learned 
hand, most probably in the reign of King Charles the 
Second, and is intitled : 

u A Discourse concerning his Majesty's Supreme Power 
Ecclesiastical, established by the Laws of this Kingdom, 
at this present time in full force and, Vigour." 

" Amongst the jurisdictions, [invested in the King by vir- 
tue of our laws] it is evident that Excommunications, Sus- 
pensions, and Deprivations ab Officio, and all manner of 
dispensations belonging to the Church, are to be under- 
stood annexed to the King. Not that it is affirmed that 
the King did ever exercise himself the power of the 
keys, but that this right was annexed to the Imperial 
Crown : that no clergyman being a member of the 
Church of England and Ireland should exercise it in his 
dominions in any case, or any person, without the licence 
and approbation of him the Supreme Head of the Church ; 
nor any forbear to exercise it, where he the Head command- 
ed it. As before the reformation, the inferior clergy might 
not exercise any church censure contrary to the com- 
mands of their lawful superiors ; whicij jurisdiction of 
their former spiritual superiors was now instated in the 
King: not as one subordinate to any ecclesiastical juris- 
diction herein, but as one by God primarily invested, with 
the disposal thereof, from whom the ecclesiastical governors 
within his dominions derive their authority, 2 E. 6. c. 1. 
And accordingly we find, in Stat. 5 and 6, 2 E. 0. c. 1. 
that by virtue of that act the Archbishops and Bishops 
should punish, by censures of the Church, all persons who 
shall offend. Which clause, by virtue of this net, implies, 
that the Bishops might not excommunicate, and use the 
censures of the Church, without the King and Parliament's ' 
licence, and ought to excommunicate in all matters wherein 
the King and Parliament commands it. Whereby it is most 
clearly to be understood, that the Jurisdiction Spiritual,, 

L2 



^# Append ix, 

ascribed to the King or 'Queen in the acts aforementioned', 
involves the Jurisdiction of Excommunication, as well as 
others, if not exercised by, himself and his vicegerents, and 
other commissioners, lay-persons ; (which practice not- 
withstanding*, in King Henry Vlllth T s days, seems to be 
recorded, and further confirmed, by allowing them to be 
married 'persons, in the act 37 H. 8. c. 17.) yet so estab- 
lished in the King, as to appoint when and for what mat- 
ters the clergy within this realm shall execute or not exe^ 
cute it. 

" As the power of Ecclesiastical Censures is instated in 
the King, so is that also of giving all manner of licences, 
dispensations, faculties, grants, &c. For all laws and con- 
stitutions merely ecclesiastical, and all causes not being 
contrary to the scriptures and the laws of God, it is not 
only taken from the Pope, but from the Clergy of this 
Church, and committed to the King, after the manner en- 
acted 25 H. 8. c. 21. where the Archbishop is constituted 
the King's instrument in giving the said licences, &c. 

" Now as for the exercise of this supreme jurisdiction, it- 
was enacted, both in King Henry the Eighth's reign, and 
Queen Elizabeth's, 1 Eliz. c. Land 8 Eliz. c. 1. that the King 
shall have full power and authority to name and authorize, by 
commission under his broad seal, such person or persons as 
his Majesty shall think meet, so they be born subjects of 
England, [Note, that King Henry was limited to choose 
half of them clergymen, which the present King is not] to ex- 
ecute and exercise, under his Majesty, all manner of juris- 
dictions, &c. to visit, reform, and redress all such errors*, 
heresies, schisms, &c. which by any manner of spiritual or 
ecclesiastical power may lawfully be reformed, &c. 

" By virtue of this supremacy ecclesiastical, the King's 
Majesty is made the ultimate judge of heresy, and the deter- 
mine? of what is agreeable or repugnant to God's law,. 
And all his subjects are obliged to receive, observe, and 
submit unto the godly instructions and determinations set 
forth by his Majesty. 

" By virtue of this supremacy, the clergy are bound to 
admit and consecrate what person soever the King shall 
present to any bishoprick, upon penalty of incurring praeynpb- 
nire ; and the consecration is to be performed by such and 
so many as the Kingshall appoint ; which persons are to do 
this work, not by virtue of any ecclesiastical jurisdiction in 
them, but as the King's delegates, who by his Letters Pa- 
tents commands them to consecrate the elect Bishop; and 
in them, if there be any canonical defect or impediment, the 
King, by his Royal Supreme Spiritual Jurisdiction, dis- 



No. IV. 77 

penses with it* Both of which things are evident by the 
patent for the consecration of Archbishop Parker in Queen 
Elizabeth, by the instrument of the said Archbishop's con- 
firmation, and by the practice ever since. 

<c Many more instances might be given of the exercise of 
the Royal Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority and Jurisdic- 
tion. But it may suffice to add this only : That whatso- 
ever the Bishop of Rome could lawfully do in the time pre- 
ceding (he Stat. 25 H 8. either in relaxation of the penalty, 
or suspension of the inferior ecclesiastical jurisdiction, all 
that is now legally instated in the King, as is evident 
from these two maxims, universally acknowledged by law- 
yers, and in the statutes since that time : First, that all 
manner of Spiritual Jurisdiction, formerly lawfully exercis- 
ed in England and Ireland, does now belong to the King*. 
Secondly, that all Spiritual Jurisdiction exercised by any 
subject in the said kingdoms, is hekl and exercised from, 

by, and under the King." See the whole of this curious 

discourse in Mr. Collier's Eccl. Uist. Vol. II. B. ii. p. 89. 
It is somewhat too long to be transcribed at large ; but 
what we have extracted from it may suffice, we presume, to 
give the reader an idea of that Supreme Power Ecclesias- 
tical, which is invested in the King by the laws of this 
land. 



No. IV. 

An Act for the Repeal of two several Acts made in the Time 
of King Edward the Sixth, touching the Dissolution, of 
the Bishoprick of Durham. 

" Whereas there hath been, time out of mind of any 
man to the contrary, a See of a Bishop of Durham, 
commonly called The Bishop rick of Durham, which hath 
been one of the most ancient and worthiest Bishopricks in 
dignity and spiritual promotion within the realm of Eng- 
land, and the same place always supplied and furnished 
with a man of great learning and virtue ; which was both to 
the honour of God, and the exercise of his true religion, and 
a great surety to that part of the realm : nevertheless, the 
said Bishoprick was, without any just cause or considera- 
tion, by authority of Parliament, dissolved, extinguished, 
and exterminated : and further, by the authority of the said 
Parliament, it was ordained and enacted, that the said Bi- 



78 Appendix, 

shoprick, together with all the ordinary jurisdiction there- 
unto appertaining", should be adjudged clearly dissolved and 
extinguished; and that King Edward the Sixth should 
from henceforth ha ye, possess, and enjoy, to him, his heirs, 
and successors for ever, whatsoever did appertain or be- 
long to the said Bishoprick, in as large and ample a manner 
and form as any Bishop thereof had, held, or possessed, or 
of right ought to have had, held, or possessed, &c. Be it 
therefore enacted, &c." 



No. V. 



Archbishop Heath'.?, Bishop Scot's, and Ahhot Fecken- 
ham',9 Speeches against Q. Elizabeth's Supremacy, and 
the New Liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer ; with 
some Account of the Sjieahers. 

" t$. Elizabeth, in the first Parliament of her summon- 
ing (besides admitting the Catholic Bishops) sent her writ 
to the # Lord Prior Tresham and Abbot Fechenham, to 
make their appearance, with the rest of her Barons, in her 
Great Council." —Ful. Ok. Hist. B.V1I. p. 359. 

In this grand council of the nation, two things seem to 
have been resolved on by the Queen and her more intimate 
counsellors. The first was, to rear up again the pillar of 
Supremacy, which Queen Mary had thrown down ; and 
the latter was, to introduce -Anew Liturgy, or form of public 
worship. — Against the first, Archbishop Heath, in the 
House of Lords, stood up, and spoke as follows : 
"My Lords, 

" With humble submission of my whole discourse to your 
Honours, I propose to speak to the body of this act, touch- 
ihg the Supremacy ; that so what this Honourable Assembly 
is now a doing, concerning the passing of this act, may 
thereby be better weighed and considered by your wisdoms. , 
First, when by virtue of this Act of Supremacy, we must 
forsake and fly from the See of Rome, it should be consider- 
ed by your wisdoms, what manner of danger or inconveni- 
ence may attend such a step; or else, whether there be 
none at all. Secondly, when the intent of this a^ct is to give 
uiHo the Queen's Highness a Supremacy, it should becon- 

* He wnv Lord Prior {or Grand Master, as some call him) of the Knights 
Hospitallers bRTfertes&'&m, refomHled by Qu<?en Mori/. 



No, V. 79 

sidered by your wisdoms, what this Supremacy is, and 
whether it doth consist in spiritual government or in tempo- 
ral. If in temporal, what further authority can this House 
give unto her Highness, than what she hath already by 
right of inheritance, and this not by our gift, but by the 
appointment of God ? she being 1 our Sovereign Lord and 
Lady, our Kins; and Queen, our Emperor and Km press. 
And if, further than this, we acknowledge her to be Head 
of the Church of England, we ought also to grant, that the 
Emperor, or any other Prince, being Catholic, and their 
subjects Protestants, are to be heads of their church. 
Whereby we shall do an act as disagreeable to Protestants, 
as this seems to Catholics. If you say this Supremacy 
doth consist in spiritual government, then it should be 
considered, what this spiritual government is, and in what 
points it doth chiefly consist. Which being first agreed 
upon, it should be further considered by your Wisdoms, 
whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not? 
and whether her Highness be an apt person to receive the 
same ? So, by a thorough examination of these points, 
your Honours will proceed in this matter groundedly, upon 
sure knowledge, and not be deceived with ignorance. 

" Now to the first pointy wherein I promised to examine, 
what matter of weight, danger, or inconvenience, might be 
incurred by thus our forsaking and flying from the See of 
Home. And if there were no further therein, than the with- 
drawing our obedience from the Pope's person, (supposing 
that he had declared himself to be a very austere and severe 
Father to us) then the business were not of so great import- 
ance, as it is in very deed, as will immediately appear. For, 
by relinquishing and forsaking the See oi'Home, we must for- 
sake and fly from these four things : First, w r e must forsake 
and ily from all General Councils. Secondly, we must fly 
from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church 
of Christ. Thirdly, from the judgment of all other Chris- 
tian Princes. Fourthly, and lastly, we must forsake and 
fly from the Unity of CJiHgfs Church, and by leaping out 
of Peter's ship, hazard ourselves to he overwhelmed and 
drowned in the waves of schism, sects, and divisions. 

"First, touching General Councils, I shall only name 
unto you these four, viz. the Nicene, the Constautinopoli- 
tan, the Epltesine, and that of Chalcedon, which are ap- 
proved by all men, doubted or denied by no man. Of the 
which four councils ^ : . Gregory vvrifeth in this wise : ' Sicut 
euim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros, sic hoc quatuor Con- 
cilia, scilicet, Nicenum, Const antinopolit ami m, Ephesinum 



$0 Appendix, 

et Chalcedonense, suseipere ac venerari me fateor — I con- 
fess I do receive and reverence these four General Coun- 
cils of Nice, of Constantinople, of Ephesus, and of Cketl- 
cedon, evei as I do the tour Evangelists. ' — At the Nicene 
Council, the first of the four, the Bishops which were there 
assembled did write their epistle to Sylvester, then Bishop 
of Rome, c That their decrees made there might be confirm- 
ed by his authority.' At the council held at Constantino- 
ple, all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus, then 
Bishop oi \ Rome. He, as chief judge in that Council, gave 
sentence against the heretics Macedvnius, Sabellius, and 
Eunomius ; which Eunomius was both an Arian, and the 
first author of that heresy, that only faith doth justify. 
And here (by the way) it is much to be lamented, that we 
the inhabitants of this realm, are much more inclined to 
raise up the errors and sects of ancient condemned heretics, 
than to follow the true approved doctrine of the most catho- 
lic and learned Fathers of Christ's Church. At the Ephe- 
sine Council, Nestorius the heretic was condemned by Ce- 
lestin, then Bishop of Rome, he being the chief judge there. 
At the Council of Chalcedon, all the Bishops assembled 
there (to the number of six hundred and thirty) did write 
their nimble submission unto Leo, then Bishop of Rome, 
wherein they did acknowledge him to be their Chief Head. 
Therefore, to deny the See Apostolic and its authority, 
were to contemn and set at nought the judgment, authority, 
and decrees of these four councils. 

" Secondly, we must forsake and fly from all Canonical 
and Ecclesiastical Laws of Chrisfs Church, whereunto we 
have already confessed our obedience at the font, saying, 
Credo Sanctum Ecclesiam Catholicam~\ believe the Holy 
Catholic Church. Which article containeth, that we must 
believe, not only that there is a Catholic Church, but that 
we must receive also the doctrine and sacraments of the 
same church,, obey her laws, and live according to the same; 
which laws do depend wholly upon the authority of the 
See Apostolic. And like as it is here openly professed by 
the judges of this realm, that the lawe agreed upon in the 
Higher and Lower Houses of this Honourable Parliament, 
be of small or none effect before the royal assent of the 
King or Prince be given thereunto : just so, ecclesiastical 
laws, when made, cannot bind the Universal Church of 
Christ, without the royal assent and confirmation of the 
See Apostolic. 

" Thirdly, we must forsake and fly from the judgment of 
?ill other Christian Princes, whether they be Protestant or 



No. V. 81 

Catholick, when none of them do agree with these our do- 
ings ; King Henri/ the Eighth being the first that ever took 
upon him the title of Supremacy And whereas it was of 
late, herein this House, said by a Nobleman, that the title 
of Supremacy is of rigid due to the King, because he is 
King; then ft wcrald follow, that Herod, being a King, 
should be Supreme Head of the Church at Jerusalem, and 
Nero the Emperor, Supreme Head of the Church of Christ 
at Rome : they being both infidels, and therefore no mem- 
bers of Christ's Church. And if our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
at his departure from this world, should have left the Spi- 
ritual Government of his Church in the hands of Emperors 
and Kings, and not have committed the same unto his 
Apostles, how negligently then should he have left his 
Church, will appear right well, by calling to your remem- 
brance, that the Emperor Constantine the Great was the 
first Christian Emperor, and reigned not till above three 
hundred years after the ascension of Christ. If, there- 
fore, by your proposition, Constantine, the first Christian 
Emperor, was the first Chief Head and Spiritual Governor 
of Christ's Church throughout his empire, then it followeth, 
that our Saviour Christ, for the whole time and space of 
three hundred years, until the coming of Constantine, had 
left his Church-, which he had dearly bought by the effusion 
of his most precious blood, without any Head at all. Be- 
sides, how untrue the saying of this Nobleman was, will 
further appear from the examples of Ozias and King David. 
For when King Ozias did take the censer to inceuse the 
altar of God, the Priest Azarias did resist him, and ex- 
pelled him out of the Temple, and said unto him these 
words : ' Non est officii tui, Oza, ut adoleas incensum Do- 
mino, scd sacerdotum, hoc est, jiliorum Aaron, qui conse- 
jc rati sunt ad hujusmodi minister mm. [*2 Pa rat. xxvi. 18.] 
— It is not thy office, Ozias, to offer incense to the Lord, 
but it. belongs to the priests, that is, to the children of 
Aaron, who are consecrated to this kind of ministry. 1 — Now 
1 shall most humbly demand this question : When the 
Priest Jzarias said to the King, Non est officii tui, &c — 
It is not thy office, &c. whether he said true or no? If 
you answer, that tie spoke truth, then the King was not the 
Supreme Head of the Church of the Jews. If you say no : 
why did God then plague the king with a leprosy, and not 
the priest ? Again ; the Priest Azarias, in resisting the 
King, and thrusting him out of the Temple, did he act the 
part of a subject, or no ? If you answer no, why then did 
God spare the Priest, and not the King ? If vou answer 

M 



82 Appendix, 

yea, then it is most manifest that Ozias, merely because he 
was a King, could not be Supreme Head of the Church. And 
as touching the example of King David, in bringing home 
the ark of God from the country of the Philistines to the 
city of David, what Supremacy, or Spiritual Government 
of God's ark, did King David there take upon him? Did 
he place himself amongst the priests, or take upon him any 
spiritual function appertaining to them ? Did he approach 
near unto the ark, or yet presume to touch the same ? No, 
by no means. For he had seen before Oza struck dead by 
the hand of God for the like arrogance and presumption. 
And therefore King David did go before the ark of God with 
his harp, making melody, and placed himself amongst the 
minstrels ; and so humbly did he abase himself, though a 
king, as to dance before the ark of God, like his other sub- 
jects. Insomuch that his Queen Michol, King Saul's 
daughter, seeing this great humility of "King -David, 
disdained him for it. Whereupon King David made her 
this answer : Ante Dominum qui elegit me potius quam 
Patrem tuum, et quam omnem Domum ejus—et ludam, et 
vilior jiam, plus quam f actus sum — Before the Lord, who 
hath chosen me, rather than thy Father, and than all his 
house, 1 will both play, and also become more abject than I 
have been.' [2 Kings v'\. 20,21.] Such was the laudable 
humility of this king !. Now, may it please your Honours 
to consider, which of both these kings it shall be most con- 
venient for your Wisdoms to move the Queen's Majesty to 
follow ; whether the example of proud Ozias, induced by 
your persuasions and counsels to take upon her the Spirit- 
ual Government, and thereby exposing her soul to be 
plagued at the hand or God, as King Ozias was ; or else to 
follow the example of good King David, who, in refusal of 
all Spiritual Government about the ark of God, did humble 
himself in the manner 1 have already declared. To which 
our Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness, of her own 
nature, being well inclined, we may assure ourselves to 
have of her as humble, as virtuous, and as godly a mistress 
to reisjn over us, as ever had English people here in this 
realm ; if that her Highness be not by your flattery and 
dissimulation, seduced and beguiled. 

il Fourthly, and lastly, we must forsake and fly from the 
Unity of Christ's Church, For the holy martyr, St. Cy- 
prian, tells us, That the Unity of the Church of Christ 
doth depend upon the Unity of Peter's Authority. The e- 
fore, by leaping out of Peter's ship, we must needs be 
overwhelmed w»tu the schism, sects, and divisions ; because 



No. V. 83 

the same holy martyr, in his third Epistle to Cornelius, as- 
sures us, ' That all heresies and schisms spring from 
hence, that men will not be obedient to the chief Bishop of 
God — Neque enim aliunde Juereses obortue sunt, out 
nala sunt sehismata, quam inde, quod Sacerdoti Dei 
non obtemperaturS And how true this saying of St. 
Cyprian is, appears both by the example of the Germans, 
and by us, the inhabitants of this realm of England. For 
by our forsaking* and flying from the Unity of the Church 
of Borne, this inconvenience, amongst many others, must 
consequently follow : that either we must grant the Church 
of Rome to be the true Church of God, or else a malignant 
Church. If you answer, that it is the true Church of God, 
where Jesus Christ is truly taught, and all his sacraments 
rightly administered, how can we vindicate our forsaking 
and flying from that Church which we profess and acknow- 
ledge to be of God, when with that Church which is of 
God, we ought to he one, and not admit of any separation ? 
If you auswer, that the Church of Borne is not of God, but 
a malignant Church, then it will follow, that we, the inha- 
bitants of this realm, have not received any benefit of 
Christ, since we have received no other gospel, no other 
doctrine, no other faith, not other sacraments, but what 
were sent us from the Church of Home. First, in King 
Lucius* s days, at whose humble remonstrance the holy 
martyr Eleutherius, then Bishop of Rome, sent into this 
realm two holy Monks, Fugatius and Damianus, by whose 
doctrine and preaching we were first brought to the know- 
ledge of the faith of Jesus Christ, of his gospel, and of his 
most holy sacraments. Secondly, holy St. Gregory, being' 
Bishop of Honle, sent into this realm two other holy Monks, 
St. Augustine (called the Apostle of England), and MeUitus, 
to revive the very same faith of Jesus Christ, which had been 
planted in this realm in the days of King Lucius. Thirdly, 
and last of all, Paid l\l. being Bishop of Rome, sent hi- 
ther his Grace Cardinal Pole, by birth a nobleman of this 
realm, as his Legate, to restore us to the same Faith which 
the blessed Martyr Eleutherius and holy Saint Gregory 
had planted here many years before. If, therefore, the 
Church of Rome be not of God, but a false and malignant 
Church, then we have been deceived all this while ; for the 
gospel, the doctrine, the faith and sacraments, must be of 
the same nature with that Church from whence it and they 
came. Therefore, in relinquishing and forsaking that 
Church, the inhabitants of this realm shall be forced to seek 

M2 



84 Appendix, 

further for another gospel of Christ, other doctrine, other 
faith and sacraments, than we have hitherto received ; 
which will breed such errors, schisms, and confusions 
amongst us, as were never in any Christian realm. And 
therefore it is a case worthy of your Wisdoms most mature 
consideration, before you pass this Act of Supremacy. And 
thus much touching the first point. 

"■ Now to the second point, wherein I promised to move 
your Honours to consider what this Supremacy is, which we 
go about, by virtue of this act, to give unto the Queen's 
Highness, and wherein it doth consist ; as whether in spi- 
ritual government or in temporal. If. in spiritual, as the 
words of the act import, Supreme Head of the Church of 
England immediately and next under God, then it should 
be considered, in what points this spiritual government 
doth consist ; and the points being well known, it should 
be further considered, whether this House has authority to 
give them, and her Highness ability to receive them. 

" As to the points wherein this spiritual government doth, 
consist, I have, in reading the gospel, and the whole course 
of divinity thereupon (as to my vocation belongeth) ob- 
served these four, as chief among many others. The 
first is, To loose and bind sins ; when our Saviour, in or- 
daining Peter to be chief Governor of his Church, said unto 
him : ' Tibi dabo claves regni coelorum, tyc. —To thee will I 
give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, &c.' Now it 
should be considered by your Wisdoms, whether you have 
sufficient authority to grant unto her Majesty this first 
point of spiritual government, and to say unto her, 'Tibi 
dabimus—To thee will we give the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven/ If you say Yea, then do we require a sight of 
your warrant and commission, by virtue of God's word. 
And if you say No, then you may be well assured, and 
persuade yourselves, that you have not sufficient authority 
to make her Highness Supreme Head of the Church of 
Christ in this realm. 

" The second point of spiritual government is gathered 
out of the words of our Saviour Christ, spoken to St. Peter 
in the ^Ist chapter of St. John's Gospel: ' I'asce agnos 
jneos. Pasce ores meas — Feed my iambs. Feed my sheep.' 
Now whether your Honours have authority, by this High 
Court of Parliament, to say unto our Sovereign Lady : 
Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. You must show warrant 
and commission for it. And further, that her Highness 
being a woman by birth and nature, is not qualified by God's 



No. V. 8-5 

word, to feed the flock of Christ, appears most plainly from 
St. Paul in this wise saying* : ' Mulieres in Ecclesiis tace- 
ant, ?ion enim permit titur eis loqiti, sed subditas esse, stent 
et lex dicit — Let women be silent in the churches, for it is 
not permitted unto them to speak, but to be in subjection, 
as also the law saith.' And it follows in the same place : 
' Turpe est enim mnlieri loqvi in Ecclesia—Yov it is a 
shameful thing lor a woman to speak in the Church.' 1 Cor. 
xiv. 3i, 36. And in his first Epistle to J imothy, ii. 12. be 
says : ' Docere autem rnulieri non permitto, yeque domina- 
riin viriim, sed esse in silentio — 1 permit not a woman to 
teach, nor to exercise authority over the man, but to be in 
silence.' Therefore it appears, that your Honours have 
not authority to give her Highness this second point of 
Church Government, to feed the flock of Christ, so her 
Highness, by St. i J auVs doctrine, may not intermeddle 
herself with the same. Therefore she cannot be Supi % e- 
me Head of the Church in England. 

iC The third point of spiritual government is gathered out 
of these words of our Saviour Christ, spoken to St. Peter 
in the 2d chapter of St. Lvhe's Gospel : ' Eyo rogavi pro 
te, til non deficiat fides iua, et tu aliquando conversus, con- 
firmafr aires taos*- 1 have prayed for thee, that thy faith 
may not fail : do thou also, when thou art come back, con- 
firm thy brethren.' That is, ratify and establish them in 
wholesome doctrine and the administration of the sacra- 
ments, which are the blessed instruments of our sanctifica- 
tion. But to preach, and to administer the sacraments, a 
woman may not be admitted. Therefore she cannot be the 
Supreme Head of Christ' 's Church. 

<" The fourth and last chief point of spiritual government, 
which I promised to note unto you, doth consist in excom- 
munication, and spiritual punishment of all such as shall 
discover themselves not to be obedient children of Christ's 
Church. Of which authority our Saviour Christ speaks, 
(Matt, xviii.) there saying, i Die Ecclesia — Tell it to the 
Church. And if he will not hear the Church, let him be 
unto thee as an heathen or a publican.' So the Apostle St. 
Paul did excommunicate the notorious fornicator that was 
amongst the Corinthians, and this by the authority of his 
apostleship. Unto which apostles, Christ ascending into 
heaven, did leave the whole spiritual government of his 
Church, as appeareth by these plain words of &t. Pant, in 
his Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. iv. c He hath given [to 
his Church] some to be apostles, some prophets, some 



/86 Append fa, 

evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the consumma- 
tion of the saints, to the work of the ministry, to the build- 
ing- up of the body of Christ. 1 But a woman, in the decrees 
of the Church, is not called to be an apostle, nor evange- 
list, nor to be a pastor, nor a preacher, nor a teacher. 
Therefore she cannot be the Supreme Head of Christ's mili- 
tant Church, nor yet of any part thereof. 

" And thus much have I here said, Right Honourable and 
my very good Lords, against this Act of Supremacy, for 
the discharge of my poor conscience, and for the love, and 
fear, and dread, which I chielly owe unto God, to our 
Sovereign Lady the Queen's Majesty's Highness, and to 
your Lordships all ; when otherwise, without mature consi- 
deration of all these premises, your Honours will never be 
able to show your faces before your enemies in this matter ; 
it being so strange a spectacle, so rash an example, as in 
this realm is only to be found, and in no other Christian 
kingdom in the world. 

" Thus humbly beseeching your Lordships to take in 
good part this unartful and plain speech, which I have deli- 
vered, out of no small zeal and good will, I shall now for- 
bear to trouble your Lordships any longer." 

Some Account of D. Heath, the 60th (and last Catholic) 
A rch b ish op of York. 

" Nicholas Heath, a Londoner born, was Doctor of Di- 
vinity in Cambridge, and afterwards Almoner to King" 
Henry WW. His next preferment was, that anno 1539 he 
was consecrated ESishop of Landdff, and the same year was 
removed to Rochester, where he did not sit above Tour 
years till he was translated to Worcester. In the time of 
King Edward VI. he was deprived of his Bishoprick of 
Worcester, for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, but 
Queen Mary restored him again in the beginning of her 
reign, and also made him Lord President of Wales. He 
was soon after translated to York ; the bull of Pope Paul 
IV. which confirmed his election thereto, and is the last in- 
strument of that kind acknowledged in this See, bears date 
11 kal. Julii, anno 1555. On the 3d of October following 
the pall was sent him, for the plenary administration of his 
office ; and on the 22d of January the. same year, he was 
solemnly installed and enthroned in person. 

" Whilst he sat here as Archbishop, he made it his busi- 
ness to retrieve what was lost from the See by his predeces- 



No. V. 87 

sors ; and by his interest in Queen Mart/, lie obtained Stif- 
J 'oik- House, in Southwark, in recompense for White-Hall. 
But this being at too great a distance from court, he pro- 
cured instead thereof York place, in the Strand, which him- 
self and successors enjoyed, till King James the First, to 
please the Duke of Buckingham, exchanged it with Archbi- 
shop Matthews for lands elsewhere. Our Prelate also pre- 
vailed upon the Queen to restore Ripon lordship, with seven 
other manors, members thereof, alienated by Holgate ,- 
Southwell he also got reverted, and five more manors in 
Nottinghamshire. Insomuch that it may be truly said, that 
the See of York owes to Queen Mary and this Archbishop a 
third part of its present revenues. 

" Upon Stephen Gardiner's death, Nicholas, being then 
Archbishup of York, was constituted Lord Chancellor of 
England, which place beheld all the reign of Queen Mary. 
Upon the death of this Princess, he, by his authority, call- 
ed together the Nobility and Commons in Parliament, then 
lately assembled, but dissolved upon her demise, and gave 
orders for the proclaiming of Elizabeth. A circumstance 
the more remarkable, in that immediately upon her acces- 
sion our Prelate was deprived ; though not so much for 
want of loyalty to her person and right of succession, as for 
his religion, in which he always kept steady to the Church 
of Rome. The Queen, however, paid such regard to his 
merit, that she. suffered him to retire to a small estate he 
had at Cobham, in Surrey. Here it was that he spent the 
remainder of his days unmolested, in a studious and reli- 
gious manner, and free from harbouring any thoughts of 
faction or revenge. He died in this place anno 1568, and 
was buried in the chancel of the church there, under a blue 
stone, as our writers inform us, and the inhabitants have 
still a tradition." Drake's Antiq. of York, B. II. ch. i. 
p. 453. 

D. Feckenham's Speech against Queen Elizabeth's New 
Liturgy, or Common Prayer- Book. 

" Honourable and my very good Lords, 

" Having at tins present two sundry kinds of religion 
here propounded and set forth before your Honours, being 
already in possession of the one of them, and your fathers 
before you, for the space of fourteen hundred years past, 
herein this realm, like as I shall hereafter prove unto you, 
the other religion here set forth in a book, to be teceived 



88 Appendix, 

and established by the authority of this High Court of 
Parliament, and to take its effect here in this realm, at 
Midsummer next coming. And you being, as I know, 
right well desirous to have some proof, or sure knowledge, 
which of both these religions is the better, and most worthy 
to be established here in this realm, and to be preferred be- 
fore the other, I will, for my part, and for the discharge of 
my duty, first unto God ; secondly unto our Sovereign 
Lady the Queen's Highness ; thirdly unto your Honours, 
and the whole Commons of this realm, here set forth, and 
express unto you three brief rules or lessons, whereby your 
Honours shall be able to put the difference betwixt the true 
religion of God and the counterfeit, and therein never be 
deceived. The first of these rules or lessons is, that in your 
search and tryal-making, your Honours must observe, 
which of them both hath been of most antiquity, and most 
observed in the Church of Christ, of all men, at all times, 
and in all places. The second, which of them both is of it- 
self more stedfast, and always One, and agreeable with 
itself. The third and last rule to be considered of your 
Wisdoms, is, which of these religions doth breed the 
more humble and obedient subjects ; first, unto God, and 
next, unto our Sovereign Lady, the Queen's Highness, and 
to all superior powers. 

" Concerning the first rule and lesson, it cannot be truly 
affirmed, nor yet thought, of any man, that this new religi 
on, here now to be set forth in this book, hath been observed 
in Christ's Church, of all Christian men, at all times, and 
in all places ; when the same hath been observed only here 
in this realm, and that for a short time, as not much passing 
the space of two years, and that in King Edward VI. 's 
days ; whereas the religion, and the very same manner of 
serving and honouring God, of which you are at this pre- 
sent in possession, did begin here in this realm 1400 years 
past, in King Lucius' s days, the first Christian King of this 
realm, by whose humble letters, sent to Pope Eleutherius, 
he sent to this realm two holy monks, the one called Dami- 
anus, and the other Fugatius ; and they, as ambassadors 
sent from the See Apostolic of .Rome, did bring into this 
realm, so many years past, the very same religion whereof 
we are now in possession, and in the Latin tongue, as the 
ancient historiographer Gildas witnesseth, in the prologue 
and beginning of his Book of the Britain-History. And 
the same religion, so long ago begun, hath had this long 
continuance ever since, herein this realm, and not only of. 



No. V. 89 

the inhabitants thereof, but also generally of all Christian 
men, and in all places of Christendom, until the late days of 
King" Edward the Sixth, as is aforesaid. Whereby it ap- 
peareth unto all men that list to know, how that by this rule 
and lesson the ancient religion and manner of serving' God 
(whereof we are already in possession) is the very true and 
perfect religion, and of God. 

" Touching the second rule and lesson of trial-making 
and probation, whether of both these religions is the better, 
and most worthy of observance here in this realm, is this, 
that your Honours must observe which of both these is the 
most stayed religion, and always one, and agreeable with it- 
self. And that the new religion, here now to be set forth in 
this book, is no stayed religion, nor always one, nor agree- 
able with itself, who seeth it not ; when in the late practice 
thereof in King Edward the Sixth's days, how changeable, 
and how variable was it in and to itself? Every other year 
having a new book devised thereof, and every book set forth, 
as they professed, according to the sincere word of God; 
yet never any one of them agreeing in all points with the 
other. The first book affirming the seven Sacraments, and 
the Real Presence of Christ's body in the Hohj Eucharist ; 
the other denying* the same. The one book admitting the 
Real Presence of Christ's body in the said Sacrament, to be 
received in one kind, with kneeling down, and great reve- 
rence done unto it, and that in unleavened bread ; and the 
other book would have the communion received in both kinds, 
and in loaf-bread, without any reverence, but only unto the 
body of Christ in heaven. But the thing most worthy to be 
observed of your Honours is, how that very book made a 
shew to be set forth according to the sincere word of God, 
and yet not one of them did agree with another. And what 
marvel, I pray you, when the authors and devisors of the 
same books could not agree amongst themselves, nor any 
one cf them might be found that did long agree with him- 
self. And for the proof thereof I shall first begin with 
German writers, the chief schoolmasters and instructors of 
our countrymen in these novelties. 

" I have read in an epistle, which Philip Melancthon did 
write unto one Frederico 3'liconino, how that one Caj-olosta- 
dius was the first mover and beginner of the late sedition in 
Chrmany, touching the Sa'crament of the Altar, and the 
denying of Christ's Real Presence in the same. And when 
lie should come to interpret those words of our Saviour 
Christ, i Accepit panem, benedixit, f regit, deditqite Dis~ 

N 



90 Appendix, 

cipulis suis, dicens, Accipite et comedite, Hoc est corpus memrt, 
quod pro Vobis tradetur : Digito, inquit ille, monstravit vi- 
sibile corpus suum? By which interpretation of Carolostadi- 
ws, Christ should with one hand give unto his Disciples 
bread to eat, and with the other hand point unto his visible 
body that was there present, and say, ' This is my body, which 
shall be betrayed for you? Martin Luther, much offended 
with this, foolish exposition made by Carolostadius of the 
words of Christ, Hoc est corpus meum [This is my body], 
he giveth another sense ; and (saith that German) ' Sensus 
rerborum Christi, [the meaning of Christ's words], was 
this : Per hunc panem, vel, cum isto pane, En I do vobis 
corpus meum. [By, or with this bread, behold I give you 
my body.]' But Zuinglius finding much fault with the in- 
terpretation of Martin Luther, writes, that Luther therein 
was much deceived, and how that, in these words of Christ, 
Hoc est corpus meum, [This is my body], the verb substan- 
tive est [is] must be taken for significat, [signifies, or re- 
presents], and this word corpus [body] must betaken pro 
Jigura corporis [for the figure, or representation of his body.] 
So that the sense of these words, Hoc est corpus meum, 
[This is my body], by Zuinglius 's supposal, is, Hoc signi- 
Jicat corpus meum, vel, est Jigura corporis mei, [this signi- 
fies my body, or, this is a figure, or representation of my 
body.' Peter Martyr being of late here in this realm, in 
his book by him set forth, of the disputation which he had 
in Oxford, with the learned students there, of this matter, 
giveth another sense of these words of Christ, contrary to 
all the rest, and there saith thus : ' Quod Christus accipiens 
panem, benedixit, fregit, deditque discipulis suis, dicens, 
Hoc est corpus meum, quasi diceret, corpus meum perfidem 
percept urn, erit vobis pro pane, vel in star pan is : whose 
sense in English is this : That Christ's body, received by 
faith, shall be unto you as bread, or instead of bread.' 

c( But here to cease any further to speak of these German 
writers, T shall draw nearer home ; as, unto Dr. Cranmer, late 
Archbishop of Canterbury in this realm : how contrary was 
he to himself in this matter ? When in one year he did set 
forth a Catechism in the English tongue, and did dedicate 
the same unto King Edward the Sixth, wherein he doth 
constantly affirm and defend the Real Presence of Christ's 
body in the Holy Eucharist ; and very shortly after, he did 
set forth another book, wherein he did most shamefully de- 
ny the same, falsifying both the Scriptures and Doctors, to 
the no small admiration of all the learned readers. D. Rid- 



No. V. 91 

ley, the most learned of that religion in this realm, did set 
forth at Paul's Cross the Heal Presence of Christ's body in 
the sacrament, with these words, which I heard, being 
there present : * How that the Devil did believe the Son of 
<*od was able to make stones bread ; and we English people, 
which do confess that Jesus Christ was the very Son of 
God, yet will not believe that he did make of bread his very 
body, flesh, and blood. Therefore we are worse than the 
Devil ; seeing that our Saviour Christ, by express words, 
most plainly affirmed the same, when at the last sup- 
j)er he took bread, and said unto his disciples, Take ye, 
.cat, this is my body, which shall be given for you.' Ajid 
shortly after, the said Dr. Ridley, notwithstanding this moat 
plain and open declaration at Paul's Cross, did deny the 
same. And in the last book that D. Cranmer and his ac- 
complices did set forth, of the Communion, in King Ed- 
ward the Sixth's days, these plain words of Christ, Hoc est 
corpus me um, [This is my body], did so incumber them, 
and trouble their wits, that they did leave out, in the same 
last book, this verb substantive, est [is], and made the 
sense of Christ's words to be there Englished, Take, eat this 
my body. Which thing being espied by o.thers, and great 
fault found withal, then they were fain to patch up the mat- 
ter with a little piece of paper clapt over the aforesaid words, 
wherein was written this verb substantive, est [is]. Now, 
since the dealings of both the German and English writers 
in this matter, are so variable and uncertain, and one of 
4hem so much against another, your Honours may be well 
assured that this religion, which by them is set forth, can 
be no constant, no stayed religion ; and therefore of your Ho- 
nours not to be received ; but great wisdom it were, far 
your Honours to refuse the same, until you shall perceive 
better agreement amongst the authors and setters forth of 
the same. 

" Touching the third atid la^t rule erf trial-making and 
putting oft' difference between these religions, it is to be 
considered of your Honours, which of them both doth breed 
more obedient, more humble, and better subjects. First and 
chiefly, unto our Saviour and Redeemer. Secondly, unto 
vour Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness, and to all other 
superiors. And for some trial and probation thereof, I shall 
desire your Honours to consider the sudden mutation of 
the subjects of this realm since the death of good Queen 
Mary, only caused in them by the preachers of this new re- 
ligion. When in Queen Mary's, days, your Honours 4o 

N 2 



92 dppendiw, 

know light well, bow the people of this realm did live in 
order, and would not run before the laws, nor openly dis- 
obey the Queen's Highness's proceedings and proclamati- 
ons. There was no spoiling of Churches, no pulling down 
of altars, and most blasphemously treading of sacraments 
under their feet, and hanging up the Knave of Clubs in the 
place thereof. There was no scotching, [hacking] nor cut- 
ting of the faces and legs of the crucifix and images of 
Christ. There was no open flesh-eating nor shambles-keep- 
ing in Lent, and days prohibited. The subjects of this 
realm, and especially the Nobility, and such as were of the 
Honourable Council, did, in Queen Mark's days, know the 
way to churches and chapels, there to begin their day's work 
with calling for help and grace, by humble prayers and 
serving God. And now, since the coming and reign of our 
most Sovereign and dear Lady Queen Elizabeth, only by 
the preachers and scaffold -players of this new religion, all 
things are turned upside down, and notwithstanding the 
Queen's Majesty's Proclamations, most godly made to the 
contrary, and her virtuous example of living, sufficient to 
move the hearts of all obedient subjects to the due service 
and honour of God. But obedience is gone, humility and 
meekness clear abolished, virtuous chastity and strict living 
renounced, as though they had never been heard of in this 
realm ; all degrees and kinds being desirous of fleshly and 
carnal liberty ; whereby the young springals and children 
are degenerated from their fathers, the servants contemp- 
tors of their master's commandments, the subjects disobedi- 
ent to God, and to all superior powers. 

" And therefore, honourable and my very good Lords, of 
my part, to administer some occasion unto your Honours to 
expel, and put out of this realm tins new religion, whose 
fruits are so manifestly known to be as I have represented, 
and to pei sua Je your Honours to -avoid it, as much as in me 
iieth, and to persevere artd continue steadfastly in the same 
religion whereof you are in possession, and have already 
made profession of the same unto God; I shall rehearse 
unto your Honours four things, whereby the holy Doctor S. 
Augustine was settled in the Catholic Church and Religion 
of Christ, which he had received, and would by no means 
change nor alter from the same, The first of these four 
things was, ' Ipsa Author it as Ecdesise Christi, miraculis. 
iuclioaia, spe nuirita, ckarilate aucla, vetustate jinnata : 
[/. el The Authority of the Church of Christ, fpunded upon 
miracles, subsisted by the hope of immortality, increased 



/ 

No. V. 93 

by benevolent principles and practice, and strengthened by 
length of time.]' The second thing was ; ' Populi Christia- 
ni consensus et tinitas : [The consent and unity of all 
Christendom.]' The third thing was : ' Perpetua Sacerdo- 
tum Successio in Sede Petri : [An uninterrupted Successi- 
on of Bishops in Peter's Chair.]' The fourth and last thing 
was : ' Ipsum Catholicse nomen : [The very name of Catho- 
lic] ' Now if these four things did cause so notable and learn- 
ed a divine, as S. Augustine was, to continue in his pro- 
fessed religion of Christ, without any change or alteration, 
how much then ought these four points to work the like 
effect in your hearts, and prevail with you, not to forsake 
your professed religion ? First, because it hath the autho- 
rity of Christ. Secondly, because it hath the consent and 
agreement of Christian people. Thirdly, because it hath 
the confirmation of all Peter's successors in the See Apos- 
tolic. Fourthly, it hath Ipsum Catholicse women, and is 
and hath been, in all times and places, The Catholic Re- 
ligion. 

M Thus bold have I been, to trouble your Honours with 
so tedious and long an oration for the discharging, as I said 
before, of my duty, first unto God, secondly unto our 
Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness, thirdly and lastly, 
unto your Honours, and all other subjects of this realm ; 
most humbly beseeching your Honours to take in good 
part, and to be spoke of me, for the only causes above said, 
and for none other." 

Thus spoke our learned Abbot, who, because he was the 
last of his Order that ever sat in an English Parliament, and 
one besides, that makes no small figure in the Ecclesiastical 
History of Great-Britain, we presume it may not be unac- 
ceptable to the reader, to be made a little better acquainted 
with his character and merit ; and with this view we have 
subjoined 

Some Account of D. Feckenham, the last Abbot of 
Westminster Abbey. 

. Mr. Fuller, with his usual pedantry, introduces his ac- 
count of this great man, with telling us, " He was a land- 
tnarkm history. His personal experience being a chronicle; 
who, like the axle-tree, stood firm and fixed in his judg- 
ment ; while the times, like the wheels, turned backwards 
and forwards round about him." \_Ful. Ch. Hist. B. IX. 
p. 359 ] But dismissing these mechanical comparisons, we 



94 Appendix s 

beg leave to inform our reader, and to tell him in plain Eng- 
lish, that 

D. John Howman (for that was his true name) assumed 
the surname of Feckenham (or Fecknam, as some contract 
it) from the forest of Feckenham, in Worcestershire, where 
he was born, of a family not very considerable in that coun- 
ty. But the lowness of his birth was abundantly compen- 
sated by a noble and exalted genius for learning' and virtue ; 
and his extraordinary qualifications recommending him very 
powerfully to the Monks of Evesham, of the Order of 
S. Benedict, they made no difficulty of receiving him, very 
young, into their Monastery. At 18 years of age he was 
sent to Oxford, where having provided himself with a large 
stock of academical learning, he was called home, to be em- 
ployed in teaching the young religious of his Order at 
Evesham. Upon the dissolution of that noble Monastery by 
K. Henry VIII. Mr. Feckenham revisited Oxford, and 
having taken the degree of Doctor of Divinity, became 
Chaplain to D. John Belt, Bp. of Worcester ; and this Pre- 
late dying in 1539, he assisted I). Bonner, Bp. of London 9 
in the same capacity. "He never dissembled his religion,'* 
says my author, " being a zealous Papist, and suffered 
much for his conscience under King Edward the Sixth.'*' 
[Fuller ubi sup.] 

In this reign, Bonner being deprived of his Bishoprick ? 
both Bishop and Chaplain were committed close prisoners, 
{Bonner to the Marshalsea, and Feckenham to the Tower) 
by order of Archbishop Cranmer, for defending the religion 
of their ancestors, from which Cranmer had now publicly 
revolted. And in this confinement they both continued, till 
Queen Mary mounted the throne. 

Upon this turn of affairs, Bonner was restored to his pris- 
tine honours, and Feckenham being called to court, was 
anade one of the Queen's Chaplains, and Dean of St. 
Paul's. Soon after, Queen Mury refounded Westminster 
Abbey, of which D. Heylin gives us the followiug ac-^ 
count. 

" The Abbey of Westminster had been founded for a 
Convent of Benedictine Monks by King Edward the Con- 
fessor, valued at tlie suppression by K. Henry VIII, at the 
yearly sum of Z.3977, in good old rents, anno 1539. At 
which time, having taken to himself the best and greatest 
part of the lands thereof, he founded with the rest a Colle- 
giate Church, consisting of a Dean and Secular Canons. 
But now the Queen {Mary] put into it a Convent of Bmf~ 



No. v. m 

dictines, consisting of an Abbot and 14 Monks." — Heyl. 
II. R. Q. M. 

Over these 14 Monks, which (continues our Author) 
were as many as the lands left upon it could well maintain, 
D. Feckenham was appointed the chief Officer, or Abbot ; 
which dignity lie sustained with great repute both as to 
piety and learning. His mildness and moderation are 
much applauded by our historians ; and, in particular, Mr. 
Fuller assures us, that " in the reign of Queen Mary he 
was wholly employed in doing good offices for the Protes- 
tants, from the highest to the lowest."— -Amongst these high 
ones are reckoned Sir John Cheek, the Earls of Bedford o.nd 
Leicester, and the Princess Elizabeth, who (as Sleidan, a 
cotemporary and Protestant Historian relates, " was com- 
mitted to the Tower, because she was suspected to have had 
a hand in JVyafs rebellion." All these (to make use of 
Mr. Fuller's expression) tasted of his kindness. " And he 
interposed so far," says Mr. Collier, i( . with Queen Mary, 
for the enlargement of her sister Elizabeth, that he suffered 
in his interest at court." Yet all these obligations were 
not only buried in oblivion, but most ungratefully repaid 
with very severe treatment ; Abbot Feckenham, upon his 
refusing the Oath of Supremacy, being hurried from prison 
to prison the rest of his life.— Fuller ubi suj).—Sleidari > & 
Reformation, B. XXV. p. 598. — Collier's Eccl. Hist. 
B. VIII. p. 596. 

The first prison Eliabeth sent him to was the Tower, from 
whence he was removed to the custody of Horn, Bp. of 
Winchester, by whom being ruggedly used, he was re- 
manded back to the Tower, and from thence to the Mar- 
shalsea ; but this place being prejudicial to his health, he 
was indulged the convenience of a lodging in IJolborn for a 
while. At last the good Abbot w as confined to Wishich 
Castle, where, after a tedious imprisonment of three and 
twenty years, he died a venerable confessor, anno 1585. 
Of the many works which he wrote, the greatest part pe- 
rished, by reason of his confinement. Tins titles of those 
few that have escaped are : A Funeral Sermon at the Obse- 
quies of Queen Mary. A Speech in Parliament against 
the Oath of Supremacy. Of the Eucharist, against 
Hooper. Commentaries on David'* Fsalms. 

Bishop Scot's Speech against the New Liturgy. 
This is the second speech made by this learned Prelate 
against the reforming measures of Queen Elizabeth and her 



96 



Appendix, 



court. In the first (which for brevity's sake we have omit- 
ted*), he seconded Archbishop Heath in opposing 1 the 
Queen 1 's Supremacy ; and in this he seconds D. Feckenham 
against the New Liturgy, or Common- Prayer- Book. Upon 
which subject he thus delivers his sentiments. 
" My Lords, 

" This Bill, that hath been here read now the third time, 
doth appear unto me to be such a one, that it is much to be 
lamented it should be Suffered, either to be read, or any ear 
to be given unto it of Christian men, and much less of this 
Honourable Assembly. For it doth not only call in ques- 
tion and doubt those things which we ought to reverence 
without any doubt-moving, but it maketh further earnest 
request for alterance, yea, for the clear abolishing of the 
same. And that this may the more evidently appear, I 
shall desire your Lordships to consider, that our religion, 
as it was here of late, discreetly, godly, arid learnedly de- 
clared, doth consist, partly in inward thing's, as in faith, 
hope, and charity, and partly in outward things, as in 
common prayers, and the holy sacraments uniformly admi- 
nistered. 

" Now, as concerning these outward things, this Bill doth 
clearly extinguish them, setting in their places / cannot tell 
what. And the inward it doth also so shake, that it leaveth 
them very bare and feeble. 

" For first, by this Bill Christian Charity is taken away, 
and the Unity of Christ's Church is broken. For it is said, 
c Nunquam relinquunt Unitatem, qui non prius omittuni 
Charitalem : [By breaking the Unity of the Church, Cha- 
rity is lost]': and S.Paul saith, that Charity is vinculum 
perfeclioniSy the bond or chain of perfection, wherewith we 
are knit and joined together in one. Which bond being 
loosened, we must needs fall one from another, into divers 
parties and sects, as we see we do at this present. And as 
touching our Faith, it is evident that divers of the articles 
and mysteries thereof are also not only called into doubt, 
but partly openly, and partly obscurely, and yet in very 
deed, as the other, flatly denied. Now these two, I mean 
Faith and Charity^ being in this case, Hope is either left 
alone, or else Presumption set in her place ; whereupon, for 
the most part, Desperation doth follow : from the which I 
pray God preserve all men ! 

" Wherefore these matters mentioned in this Bill, where- 

* See it in Parliamentary Mid. of Ehy. Vol. III. p. 389, etc. 



No. V. 97 

in our whole Religion consisteth, we ought, I say, to re- 
verence, and not to call in question For as a learned man 
writeth : l Quae patef acta sunt quccrere, quce perfecta sunt 
retractare, et qua. definita sunt convellere, quid aliud est, 
quam de adept is gratia m no n referreV That is to say, 'To 
seek after things which be manifestly open, to retouch, or 
retract things made perfect, and to unsettle matters defined, 
what is it, less than the sin of ingratitude for favours alrea- 
dy received ?' — Likewise saith holy Athanasius: ' Quve 
nunc a tot et talibus Episcopis probata sunt ac decreta, dare- 
que demons t rata, super vacuum est denuo revocare in judici- 
um : [It is quite a superfluous thing, to bring to a rehear- 
ing matters that have been tried, decreed, and manifestly 
declared, by so many and such Bishops I]' (meaning the 
Prelates assembled at the Council of Nice.) e For no man 
will deny,' saith he, ' but if they new examined again, and 
again new judged, and after that examined again and again, 
this curiosity will never come to an end. And it is said, in 
Ecclesiastica Historia : Si quotidie licebit Jidem in quses- 
tionem vocare, de Jide nunquam const abit ; — If it may be 
lawful every day to call our faith in question, we shall never 
have any certainty of our faith.' Now, if Athanasius did 
think that no man ought to doubt of matters determined in 
the Council of Nice, where were present three hundred and 
eighteen Bishops ; how much less ought we to doubt of 
matters determined and practised in the holy Catholic 
Church of Christ by three hundred thousand Bishops, nnd 
how many more we cannot tell. 

u And as for the certainty of our faith, whereof the histo- 
ry of the Church doth speak, it is a thing of all others the 
most necessary ; and if it shall hang upon an Act of Parlia- 
ment, we have but a weak staff to lean upon. And yet I 
shalldesire your Lordships, not to take me here as speaking 
in derogation of the Parliament, which I acknowledge to be 
of great strength in matters whereunto it extendeth. But 
for matters in religion, I do not think that it ought to med- 
dle ; partly for the certainty which ought to be in our faith 
and religion, and the uncertainty of the Statutes and Acts 
of Parliament. For we see that oftentimes, that which is 
established by Parliament one year, is abrogated the next 
year following*, and the contrary allowed. And we see also, 
that one King disalloweth the statutes made under the other. 
But our Faith and Religion ought to be most certain, and 
One in all things, and in no condition wavering. For, as 
S. James saith ; He thai doubteth or staggereth in his faith, 

O 



98 Appendix, 

is like the waves of the sea, and shall obtain nothing at the 
hands of God. And partly for that the Parliament eonsist- 
eth, for the most part, of noblemen of this realm, and cer- 
tain of the commons, being lay and temporal men, which, 
altho 1 they be both of good wisdom and learning, yet not so 
studied, nor exercised in the scriptures and the holy doctors 
and practices of the Church, as to be competent judges in 
such matters. Neither doth it appertain to their vocation : 
yea, and that by your Lordships own judgment; as may 
well be gathered from one fact, which I remember was done 
this parliament time, and was this, 

" There was a nobleman's son arrested and committed 
unto ward ; which matter being opened here unto your Lord- 
ships, was thought to be an injury to this House. Where- 
upon, as well the young Gentleman, as the Officer that did 
arrest him, and the party by whose means he was arrested, 
were all sent for, and commanded to appear before your 
Lordships ; which was done accordingly. Yet, before the 
parties were suffered to come into the House, it was 
thought expedient to have the whole matter considered, lest 
this House should intermeddle with matters not pertaining 
unto it. In treating whereof there were found three points. 
First, there was a doubt, and that your Lordships did re- 
mit to the common law ; the second was a.fraud, which was 
referred to the Chancery : because neither of both did ap- 
pertain unto this Court. And the third was the arrest and 
committing to ward of the same gentleman ; wherein this 
House took order. Now if that, by your Lordship's own 
judgment, the Parliament hath no authority to meddle with 
matters of common law, which is grounded upon common 
reason ; neither with the Chancery, which is grounded upon 
considerance (both which things be naturally given unto 
men) then much less may it intermeddle with matters of 
Faith and Religion, far surpassing reason and the judgment 
of men. 

" And such are the contents of this Bill ; wherein three 
things are specially to be considered. First, the weighti- 
ness of the matter. Then, the darkness of the cause, and 
the difficulty of trying out the truth. And thirdly, the 
danger and peril which must ensue if we Itake the wrong 
way. 

l( Concerning the first, that is, the rveightiness of the 
matter contained in this Bill, it is very great. For it is no 
money matter, but a matter of inheritance : yea, a matter 
touching life and death, and damnation dependeth upon it. 



No. V. 99 

Here is set before us, as the scripture saith, life and death, fire 
and water. If we put our hand unto the one, we shall live ; if 
we take hold of the other, we shall die. Now, to judge these 
matters here propounded, and discern which is life, and which 
is death ; which is fire that will burn us, and which is water 
that will refresh and comfort us, is a great matter, and not 
easily perceived of every man. Moreover, there is another 
thing here to be considered; and that is, that we do not un- 
advisedly condemn our forefathers and their doings; both 
which things the scripture forbiddeth. This we know, that 
this doctrine and form of religion, which this Bill propound- 
ed to be abolished and taken away, is that which our fore- 
fathers were born, brought up, and lived in ; and have pro- 
fessed here in this realm for the space of nine hundred years 
and more ; and hath also been professed and practised in the 
Universal Church of Christ, since the Apostles' time. 
And that which we go about to establish and place for it, is 
lately brought in, allowed no where, nor put in practice, 
but in this realm only ; and that but a small time, and 
against the minds of all Catholic men. Now, if we do but 
consider the antiquity of the one, and the newness of the 
other, we shall have just reason to have the one in estimati- 
on, for the long continuance thereof, till such time as we 
see evident cause why we should revoke it, seeing that our 
forefathers never heard of the other. 

" But now 1 do call to remembrance, that I did hear 
yesterday a Nobleman in this House say, making an answer 
to this, as it were by preoccupation, that our fathers lived 
in blindness, and that we have just occasion to lament their 
ignorance. Whereunto it may be answered, that if our fa- 
thers were here, and heard us lament their doings, it is 
very like they would say unto us, as our Saviour Christ said 
unto the women which followed him, and wept after him, 
( Nolite fie re super nos, sed super vos ipsos :' i. e. Weep not 
over us for our blindness, but weep over yourselves, for your 
own presumption ; in taking upon you so arrogantly to jus- 
tify yourselves and your doings, and so rashly condemning" 
us and our doings. Moreover, the Prophet doth teach a 
lesson clear contrary to the Nobleman's position. For he 
biddeth us, in doubtful matters, to go to our fathers, and 
learn the truth of them, in these words : * Interroga Patrem 
lunm et annuntiabit tibi, majores tuos et dicent tibi : Ask 
thy father and he will declare unto thee, thine ancestors 
and they will tell thee.' And (Psal. Ixxvii.) e Filii qui rias* 
eentur et e&s urgent, narrabunt jiliis suis, ut coguoscat gene~ 

G2 



100 



Jppendix, 



"And 



ratio altera : The children -which shall be born and rise up, 
shall tell it unto their children, that it may be known from 
one generation to another.' Thus we are directed to learn 
of our fathers, and not to contemn their doings. Wherefore 
I conclude, as concerning this part, that this Bill, contain- 
ing in it matter of great Height and importance, is to be de- 
liberated on with great care and circumspection, and is to 
be examined, tried, and determined by men of great learn- 
virtue, and experience. 

as this matter is great, and therefore not to be 
passed over hastily, but diligently to be examined, so it is 
dark, and of great difficulty to be plainly discussed, as that 
the truth may manifestly appear. For here be, as 1 have said, 
Two Boobs of Religion propounded ; the one to be abolished, 
as erroneous and wicked, and the other to be established, as 
godly and consonant to the scripture. And they be both 
concerning one matter; that is, The true Administration of 
the Sacraments, according to the institution of our Saviour 
Christ. Jn the which administretion, there be three things 
to be considered. The first is, the institution of our Savi- 
our Christ, for the matter and substance of the sacraments. 
The second is, the ordinances of the Apostles for Xheform 
of the sacraments. And the third is, the additions of the 
Holy Fathers, for the adorning and perfecting the admi- 
nistration of the sacraments. Which three things be all 
duly, as we see, observed ; and that of necessity, in this 
book of the Mass, and old service ; as all men do know 
which understand it. The other Book, which is so much 
extolled, doth, ex professo, take away two of these three 
things, and, in very deed, maketh the third a thing insigni- 
ficant. For, first, as concerning the additions of the Fa- 
terSj as, in the Mass, the Confiteor. Miser eatur, Kt/rie 
eleison^ Sequentes preces, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, with such 
other things : and also the Ordinances of the Apostles, 
blessings, crossings, and in the administration of divers of 
the sacraments, exsuflSations, exorcisms, inunctions, pray- 
ing towards the east, invocation of saints, prayer for the 
dead, with such other, this Book taketh away, either in 
part, or else clearly, as things not allowable. And yet do 
the fautors thereof contend that it is most perfect, according 
to Chrisfs institution, and the order of the Primitive 
Church. But to let the Ordinances of the Apostles, and 
the additions of the Fathers pass (which notwithstanding we 
ought greatly to esteem and reverence) let us come to the 
institution of our Saviour Christ } whereof they talk so 



No. V. 101 

much, and examine, whether of the two Books comes 
nearest unto it. And to make things plain, we will take, for 
example, the Mass, or, as they call it, The Supper of the 
Lord, wherein our Saviour Christ (as the holy Fathers dp 
gather from the scriptures) did institute three things, which 
he commanded to he done in remembrance of his death and 
passion unto his coming again, saying, * Hocfaeite,&LC Do 
this, &c.' Whereof the iirst is, the consecrating of the blessed 
body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ. The second is, 
the offering up of the same to God the Father. And the third 
is, the com municating, that is, the easing and drinking of the 
said blessed body and blood under the forms of bread and 
wine. And as concerning the two first, S. Chrysostome 
saith thus : i Volo quiddam edicere plane mirabile, et no lite 
mirari, neque turbamini, &c. : I will declare unto you in 
very deed a marvellous thing, but marvel not at it, nor be 
troubled. Whether Peter or Paul, or a priest of any de- 
sert do offer, it is the very same which Christ gave to his 
Disciples, and which priests do make, or consecrate, at this 
time. This hath nothing less than that. Why so ? Because 
men do not sanctify This, but Christ, which did sanctify- 
that before. For like as the words which Christ did speak, 
be the very same which the priests do now pronounce, so it 
is the very same oblation.' These he the words of S. Chri/- 
sosiome ; wherein he testified], as well the oblation and 
sacrifice of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ, 
to be offered unto God the Father in the Mass, as also the 
consecrating of the same by the Priests. Which two be 
both taken away by this Book, as the authors thereof do 
willingly acknowledge, crying out against the offering of 
Christ ot'tenev than once, notwithstanding that all the holy 
Fathers do teach it; manifestly affirming* Christ to be 
offered daily after an unbloody manner. But if these men 
did understand and consider what doth ensue and follow 
from this their affirmation, I think they would leave their 
rashness, and return to the' truth again. For if it be trite 
what they say, that there is no external sacrifice in the 
New Testament, then doth it follow, that there is no Priest- 
hood under the same, whose office is, saith S. Paul, to 
offer vp gifts and sacrifices for sin. And if there be no 
Priesthood, then there is no Religion under the iNew Tes- 
tament. And if we have no Religion, then we he sine Deo 
in hoc mundo ; that is, without God in this world. For one 
of these doth necessarily depend and follow upon the other ; 
and if we take away one, we take away all. 



102 Appendix, 

" Note (I beseech your Lordships) the end of these men's 
doctrine ; that is, to set us without God. And the like 
opinion they hold touching the consecration ; having no- 
thing in their mouths but the holy communion, which, after 
the order of this Book, is holy in words only, an<d not in 
deed. For the thing" is not there which should make it holy ; 
I mean, the body and blood of Christ, as may thus appear. 
It may justly indeed be called the holy communion, if it be 
ministered truly, and according as it ought to be; for then 
we receive Christ's holy body and blood into our bodies, 
and be joined in one with him, like two pieces of wax, 
which being melted and put together, be made one. Which 
similitude SS. Cyril and Chrysostome do use in this matter. 
And S. Paul saith, that We be made his bones and flesh. 
But by order of this Book, this is not done. For CJtrisfs 
body is not there in very deed to be received. For the only 
way whereby it is present, is by consecration, which this Book 
hath not at all. Neither doth it observe the form prescribed 
by Christ, nor follow the manner of the Church. The 
Evangelists declare, that our Saviour took bread into his 
hands, and blest, broke, and gave to his Disciples, say- 
ing, Talis and eat, this is my body which is given for you : 
Do this in remembrance of vie: By these words, do this, 
we be commanded to take bread into our hands, to bless it, 
break it, and, with regard to the bread, to pronounce the 
words spoken by our Saviour; that is, * Hoc est corpus 
meum \ [This is my body.]' By which words, saith S.. 
Chrysostome, the bread is consecrated. Now, by the order 
of this Book, neither doth the Priest take bread in bis hands, 
bless it, nor break it ; neither yet hath any regard or respect 
to the bread, when he rehearseth the words of Christ, but 
doth pass them over, as if he were telling a tale, or rehears- 
ing a story. Moreover, whereas by the opinions ot good 
writers, there is required, yea, and that of necessity, a full in- 
tention to do that which Christ did ; that is, to consecrate his 
body and blood, with other things following : wherefore the 
Church hath appointed in the Mass certain prayers to be 
said by the Priest before the consecration, in the which 
words be, ( Ut nobis flat corpus et sanguis Domini nostri 
Jesu Christi :' that is, the prayer is to this end, * That the 
creatures may be made unto us the body and blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ .' Here is declared the intention, as well 
of the Church, as also of the Priest which saith Mass. But 
as for this new Book, there is no such thing mentioned in 
it, that doth either declare any such intention, or make any 



. 



No. V. 103 

such request unto God, but rather the contrary. As doth 
appear by the request there made, in these words, That we 
receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, &c. which 
words declare, that they intend no consecration at all. And 
then let them glory as much as they will in their communion, 
it is to no purpose ; seeing that the body of Christ is not 
there, which, as I have said, is the very thing that should be 
communicated. 

" There did yesterday a Nobleman in this House say, that 
he did believe that Christ is there received in the commu- 
nion set out in this Book ; and being asked if he did worship 
him there, he said No : nor ever would so long as he lived. 
Which is a strange opinion, that Christ should be any 
where, and not worshipped. They say they will worship 
him in heaven, but not in the sacrament ; which is much the 
same as if a man should say, that when the Emperor sitteth 
under his cloth of state, princely apparelled, he is to be ho- 
noured; but if he come abroad in a frize coat, he is not to 
be honoured : and yet he is all one Emperor, in cloth of gold 
under his canopy of state, and in a frize coat abroad in the 
street. As it is one Christ in heaven, in the form of man, 
and in the sacrament under the form of bread and wine ; the 
scripture, as S. Augustine doth interpret it, commandeth us 
to worship the body of our Saviour; yea, and that in the 
sacrament, in these words: ( Adorate scabellum pedum ejus, 
quoniam sanctum est : Worship his footstool, for it is holy.' 
Upon which place S. Augustine writeth thus : ' Christ took 
flesh of the Blessed Virgin his Mother, and in the same did 
walk, and the same flesh he gave us to eat unto health; but 
no man will eat that flesb, except he worship it before. So 
it is found out, how we shall worship his footstool, &c. We 
shall not only not sin in worshipping, but we shall sin in not 
worshipping. 7 Thus far S. Augustine. But as concerning 
this, if we would consider all things well, we shall see the 
provision of God marvellous in it. For he provideth so, that 
the very heretics and enemies of the truth be compelled to 
confess the truth in this behalf. For the Lutherans writing 
against the Zuinglians, do prove, that the true natural body 
of our Saviour Christ is in the sacrament. And the Zuin- 
glians against the Lutheraus do prove, that then it must 
needs be worshipped there. And thus in their contention 
doth die truth burst out, whether they will or no. Where- 
fore, in my opinion, of these two errors, the fonder is to say, 
that Christ is in the sacrament, and yet not to be worshipped, 
than to say he is not there at all. For either they do think 






1 04 Appendix, 

that he is there but only in imagination and fancy, and so 
Bot in very deed ; or else they be Nestorians, and think that 
here is his body only, and not his divinity ; which is both 
devilish and wicked. 

" Now, my Lords, consider, I beseech you, the matters 
here in variance, whether your Lordships be able to discuss 
them according to learning, so as the truth may appear, or 
no. That is, whether the body of Christ be, by this new 
Book, consecrated, offered, adored, and truly communicat- 
ed, or no. And whether these things be required necessari- 
ly, by the institution of our Saviour Christ, or no. And 
whether Book goeth nearer the truth. These matters, my 
Lords, be, as I have said, weighty and dark, and not easy 
to be discussed. And thus likewise your Lordships may 
think of the rest of the sacraments, which be either clearly 
taken away, or else mangled after the same sort, by this 
New Book. 

6i The third thing here to be considered is, the great dan- 
ger and peril that doth hang over your heads, if you take 
upon you to be judges in these matters, and judge wrong ; 
bringing both yourselves and others from the truth unto un- 
truth, from the highway unto by-paths. It is dangerous 
enough, God knows, for a man to err himself, but it is 
Hiore dangerous, not only to err himself, but also to lead 
dther men into error. It is said in the Scripture of King 
Jeroboam, that c Peccavit, et peccare fecit Israel, i. e. He 
did sin himself, and caused Israel to s'mS Take heed, my 
Lords, the like be not said of you. If you pass this Bill, 
you shall not only, in my judgment, err yourselves, but shall 
also be the authors and causers that the whole realm shall 
err after you. For which you must give an account to 
God. 

" Those that have read Church History, and know the 
method and order of the Church, in discussing controversies 
ia matters of religion, can testify, that they have been dis- 
cussed and determined, in all times, by the Clergy only, 
and never by the Temporality. The heresy of Arius, which 
troubled the Church in the Time of Constantinethe Great, 
was condemned in the Council of Nice, The heresy of 
Qutijclies in the Council of Chalcedon, under Marcian. The 
heresy of Macedonius, in the first Council of Constantino- 
ple, in the time of Theodorins. The heresy of Nestorius, 
in that of EpJtesus, in the time of [heodosius the Younger'. 
And yet did never any of these good Emperors assemble their 
Nobility and Commons, for the discussing and determining 



No. V. 105 

of these controversies ; neither asked their minds [or opinio 
ons] in them, or went by number of votes or polls, to de- 
termine the truth; as is done here in this realm at this 
time. We may come lower, to the third Council of Toledo, 
in Spain, in the time of Riccaredus ; and to a Council in 
France about 800 years ago, in the reign of Carolus Mag~ 
nus: which both following the order of the Church, by 
licence had of the Pope, did procure the Clergy of their 
realms to be gathered and assembled, for reforming of cer- 
tain errors and enormities within their said realms ; where- 
unto they never called their Nobility or Commons. Neither 
did any of them take upon themselves either to reason or 
dispute, in discussing of the controversies ; nor to deter- 
mine them being discussed ; but left the whole to the dis- 
cussing and determining of the Clergy. And no marvel if 
these, with other Catholic Princes, used this method. For 
the Emperors that were heretics, did never reserve any 
such matter to the judgment of temporal men : as may ap- 
pear to them that read the stories of Constantius, Vahns, 
&c. who procured divers assemblies, but always of the 
Clergy, for the establishing of Jrius's doctrine : and of 
Zeno the Emperor, which did the like for Eutyches's doc- 
trine ; with many others of that sort. Yea, it doth appear 
in the Acts of the Apostles, that an infidel would take no 
such matter upon him. The story is this : S. Paul having 
continued at Corinth one year and a half in preaching the 
gospel, certain wicked persons did rise against him, and 
brought him before the Vice-Consul, called Gallio, laying 
unto his charge, that He taught the people to worship God 
contrary to their law. Unto whom the Vice-Consul an- 
swered thus : ' Si quidem esset iniquum aliquid, aut f acinus 
pessimum, O vos Judsei, recti vos sustinerem ; si vero quaes- 
tiones sint de verbo, et nominibus legis veslrae, vos ipsi videri- 
tis : ego judex horum esse nolo : It it were any matter of in- 
justice, or a heinous crime, O ye Jews, I might justly have 
heard you ; but if it be concerning questions and doubts of 
the words and matters of your law, (that is to say, if it be 
touching your religion) look ye to it. I will not be judge in 
these matters.' Mark, my Lords, this short discourse, I be- 
seech your Lordships, and you shall perceive, that all Ca- 
tholic Princes, Heretic Princes, yea and infidels, have from 
time to time refused to take that upon them, which your 
Lordships go about, and challenge to do. 

" But now, because I have been long, I will make an 
end of this matter, with the saying of two noble Emperors 



106 Appendix, 

on the like occasions. The first is Theodosius : c Illicit urn 
e$t, eum qui non sit ex Ordine sanctorum Episcoporum, 
Ecclesiasticis se immiscere tractatibus : It is not lawful for 
him that is not in the Order (or rank) of holy Bishops, to 
interpose in religious affairs.' So the Emperor Valentinian, 
being desired to assemble certain Bishops together, for 
the examination of a point of doctrine, said : c Mihi 
qui in sorte sum plebis, fas non est talia curiosius 
scrutari. Sacerdotes, quibus ista curse sunt, inter seipsos, 
quocunque loco voluerint, conveniant : It is not lawful for 
me, who am but a layman, to search over-curiously into 
such matters. Let the Priests, to whom this business be- 
longs, meet about it, wherever they please.' But to con- 
clude : if these Emperors had nothing to do in these mat- 
ters, have not your Lordships as little to do with them? 
And thus desiring your Lordships to consider, and take in 
good part the few things that I have spoken, I make an end.' 
Strype's Annals, quoted in. Pari. Hist. Eng. Vol. III. p.389. 
Of this learned, &c. as p. 314. 



No. VI. 



An i^bstract of King Henry the Eighth's Injunctions to his 
Clergy. They were published in 1539, An. Reg. 28, and 
contain in substance : 

" 1. X hat all Ecclesiastical Incumbents were, for a quarter 
of a year after the publication, once every Sunday, and af- 
ter that twice every quarter, (Mr. Collier says, but twice a 
year) to publish to the people, that the Bishop of Rome's 
usurped power had no ground in the law of God, and there* 
fore was, on good reasons, abolished. And that the King's 
power was, by the laws of God, supreme over all persons in 
his dominions. 

" 2. They were to declare the articles lately set forth, for 
the abrogation of some superfluous holy days. 

" 3. They were to exhort the people to teach their chil- 
dren the Lord^s Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments, 
in their mother tongue, and explain one clause or article 
every day till the people were instructed. 

" 4. They were to take care that the sacraments aud sa- 
mentals be reverently administered in their parishes ; and 
in their absence, to commit the care to a learned and expert 
curate. 



JMo. VIL 107 

K 5. They shall not, except on urgent occasions, go to 
taverns, or alehouses, nor give themselves, after meals, to 
drinking or riot, at tables or card -playing, or any other un- 
lawful game, but at leisure hours read, or hear the Scrip- 
tures read, or some other honest exercise, and remember to 
give good example to others, to live well and christianly. 

" 6. Every beneficed person that had twenty pounds or 
above, and did not reside, was yearly to distribute the for- 
tieth part of his benefice to the poor of the parish. 

" 7. Every incumbent that had an hundred pounds a 
year, must give an exhibition for one scholar at some 
grammar-school or university. And so many hundred 
pounds as any had, so many students he was to bring up. 

" 8. Where churches, chapels, and mansions were in 
great decay, the incumbent was, every year, to give a fifth 
part of his profits to the repairing of them ; the same, so 
repaired, shall always keep and maintain in good condition. 

" 9. All which and singular injunctions shall be inviola- 
bly observed of the said incumbents, under pain of sus- 
pension, and sequestration of the fruits of their benefices, 
until they have done their duty according to these injuncti- 

om." Burnet's Hist. Ref. Vol. I. Book III. p. 225.— 

See also the Injunctions at large, in his Collection of Re- 
cords-, No. VIL 



No. VII. 



A Taste of the Mala Dogmata. 

MR. Collier presents us with a list of them in 59 arti- 
cles ; but in Mr. Fuller's History they amount to 67. They 
are too numerous to be inserted here ; and besides, are far 
from contributing any thing, either towards our edification 
or instruction. However, I shall venture to give the Rea- 
der a taste of them, only because Mr. Fuller assures us they 
contain the Protestant Religion in ore. Some of them, in 
short, are as follows. 

" That Priests have no more authority to minister sa- 
craments, than the Laymen have. 

" That man hath no free will. 

u That it is idolatry to make any oblations* 

P2 



108 Appendix, 

" That it is as lawful to christen a child in a tub of water 
at home, or in a ditch by the way, as in a font-stone in the 
Church. 

" That it is neither necessary nor serviceable, to have 
churches or chapels for divine service.'* 

[This Protestant notion, we presume, was instilled into 
the populace, to make them hear with less regret the loss 
and destruction of so many noble churches and elegant cha- 
pels, that were barbarously sacrificed to revenge and avarice, 
in this and the next reign.] 

" That rich ornaments in churches are rather displeasing, 
than acceptable to God." 

[This Protestant Principle was reduced to practice in 
King Edward's reign, with a vengeance, when the Duke of 
Somerset, at the head of the Zuinglian faction, left not so 
much as a single church unplundered, or an altar unrifled, 
in all the dominions of Great- Britain.'] 

" That it is as lawful at ail times to confess to a layman, as 
to a Priest, 

" That Auricular Confession, Absolution, and Penance, 
are neither necessary nor beneficial. 

" That Bishops, Ordinaries, and other Ecclesiastical 
Judges, have no authority to pronounce sentence of excom- 
munication, or other censures. 

" That there is no distinction of sin after this sort, sin to 
be venial, and sin to be mortal. 

" That Our Lady was no better than another woman. 
" That holy days ordained and instituted by the Church, 
are not to be observed and kept in reverence, inasmuch as 
all days and times be alike; and a man may go to plow 
and cart on those solemn festivals, as well as at any other 
time. 

ff That it is no sin or offence to eat flesh in Lent, and other 
fasting days commanded by the Church. 

" That it is as lawful to eat flesh on Good-Friday, as up- 
on Easter- J)ay. 

" That it is sufficient and enough, to believe, though a 
man do no good works at all. 

" That Prayers, Fasting, and AlmSj are of insignifican- 
cy to dispose God to forgiveness. 

" That no human constitutions or laws do bind any 
Christian man, but such as be in the New Testament; and 

that a man may break them without any offence at all." * 

Filler's Char. Hist, Book V. p. 208, el deinceps. 



No. VIII. 109 

And such is the precious Ore of the Protestant Religion ! 
Upon which the canting Mr. Fuller subjoins the following 
remarkable elogy. 

" Most of these tenets are true in themselves, ground- 
ed on God's Word, and, at this day, professed by Pro- 
testants." 

But, in my humble opinion, there is nothing more untrue, 
than Mr. Fuller's strange notion of these, or any one of 
these tenets, being true in themselves / Nothing more un- 
true, than his absurd supposition of their being grounded on 
God's Word! And ifitbetrue, what he positively asserts, 
that they are, at this day, professed by Protestants, such 
Protestants, it may well be imagined, have more reason to 
be ashamed, than to boast of their profession. 



No. VIII, 






A short Abridgment of King Henry's Articles of Religion. 
They are remarkably prefaced, and introduced with 

" The King's Declaration." 

" Henry VIII. by the Grace of God, &c. &c. — Among 
other cures appertaining to this our princely office, . .We 
have always esteemed and thought,, .that it most chiefly 
belongs unto our said charge, diligently to foresee and 
cause, . .that unity and concord in opinions, .may increase 

and go forward. For the which cause, we being of late, 

to our great regret, credibly advertised, of such diversities 
in opinions as have grown and sprungen in this our realm, 
. .have not only in our own person, at many times, taken 
great pain, study, labours, and travels, but have also caused 
our Bishops, and other the most discreet and learned of 
our Clergy, to be assembled in our convocation of the same. 
Which their determination, debatement, and agree- 
ment, forasmuch as we think to have proceeded of a good, 
right, and true judgment, and to be agreeable to the laws 
and ordinances of God,. . We have caused the same to be 
published, willing, requiring, and commanding you to ac- 
cept, repute, and take them accordingly. 

" The Sacrament of Penance. 
u We will that all our Bishoppes and Preachers shall iu- 



110 Appendix, 

struct and teach our people committed by Us unto their 
Spiritual Charge, that they ought and must most constantly 
believe, that that Sacrament was institute of Christ in tbe 
New Testament, as a thing so necessary for man's salvation, 
that no man which after his baptisme is fallen againe, and hath 
committed deadly sinne, can without the same be salved, or 
atteyne everlasting life, &c. 

" Auricular Confession and Absolution. 

u We will that all Bishopps and Preachers shall instruct 
and teach our people committed by Us unto their Spiritual 
Charge, that in no wise they do conterane this Auricular 
Confession, which is made unto the Ministers of the 
Church, but that they ought to repute the same as a very 
expedient and necessary meane, whereby they may require 
and ask this Absolution at the Prieste's hands, at such time 
as they shall find their conscience grieved with mortal 
sinnes, and have occasion so to do, to th' intent they may 
thereby attayne comfort and consolation of their con- 
sciences. 

" Item, that they ought and must give no less faith and 
credance to the same words of Absolution so pronounced by 
the Ministers of the Church, than they would give unto the 
very same words and voice of God himself, if he should speak 
unto us out of heaven, according to the saying of Christ • 
* Quorum remiseritis peccata, &c. Qui vor audit, me audit, 
&c. [Whose sins you shall forgive, &o. He that hears 
you, hears me, &c.]' 

" The Real Presence. 

" W T e will that all Bishopps and Preachers instruct and 
teach our people committed by Us unto their Spiritual 
Charge, that they ought, and must constantly believe, that 
under the Form and Figure of Bread and Wine, which wee 
there presently see and perceave by our outward senses, is 
verily, substantially, and really conteyned and compre- 
hended, the very same Body and Blood of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, which was born of the Virgin Alary, and suf- 
fered upon the Cross for our Redemption, &c. 

" Of Images. 

" We will that all Bishopps and Preachers shall in- 
struct and teach our people committed by Us to their 
Spiritual Charge, how they ought and may use them ; and 
first, there may be attributed unto them, that they be repre- 






No. VII L 111 

senters of vertue and good example ; and that they also be, 
by occasion, the kindlers and stirrers of men's minds, and 
make men to remember and lament their synnes and offences; 
and especially the images of Christ and bur Lady ; and that 
therefore it is meet they should stand in the churches, &c. 

" Invocation of Saints. 

cc We will that all Bishopps and Preachers shall instruct 
and teach our people committed by Us unto their Spiritual 
Charge, that it is very laudable to pray to Saints in Hea- 
ven everlastingly liveing, whose charity is ever permanent, 
to be Intercessors, and to pray for us and with us to Al- 
mighty God, after this manner : *" All holy Angels and 
Saints in Heaven, pray for us and with us unto the Father, 
that for his deare Son Jesus Christ's sake, wee may have 
grace of him and remission of our synnes, with an earnest 
purpose ; not wanting ghostly strength to observe and keep 
Iris holy commandments ; and never decline from the same 
againe unto our lives end.' And in this manner wee may 
pray unto our Blessed Lady, to Saint John Baptist, to all 
and every of the Apostles, or any other Saint particularly, as 
our Devotion doth move us, &c. 

" Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead. 

" For as much as due order of charity requireth, and the 
Book of Maccabees, and divers ancient Doctors plainly shew ? 
that it is a very good and charitable deed, to pray for 
souls departed ; for as much also as such usage hath conti- 
nued in the Church so many years, even from the beginning, 
Wee will that all Bishopps and Preachers shall instruct and 
teach our people committed by Us unto their Spiritual 
charge, that no man ought to be grieved with the continu- 
ance of the same : and that it standeth with the very due 
order of Charity, a Christian man to pray for souls de- 
parted, and to commit them in our prayers to God's mercy ; 
and also to cause other to pray for them in Masses and 
Exequies, and to give Alms to other to pray for them ; 
whereby they may the sooner obteyne the mercy of God and 
the fruition of his glory, &c." — Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. 
Book II. p. 12*2, etdeinceps. 

And such were the Articles which the King commanded 
his Bishops, his Preachers, and his People to receive, em- 
brace, and constantly to believe. Not upon the account of 
their being, or that they were declared to be consonant to 
the Catholic doctrine, and the practice of former ages ; but 






112 Appendix, 

because he thought them to be agreeable to the laws and 
ordinances of God. Presumptuous thought ! as if a single 
Jay man (and he too no great Apostle, no eminent Theologist !) 
could be supposed or imagined to be a more completely qua- 
lified judge in doctrinal matters and moral duties, than all 
the learned divines of his kingdom, and all the Fathers and 
General Councils put together! People may suppose what 
they please ; but in the case now before us, we have a more 
flagrant proof of King Henry's presumption, than his 
learning ; which how considerable soever it may be repre- 
sented in fulsome panegyricks, it had always the misfortune 
to be an equal match for his vanity. 



No. IX. 



Mercantius, hi Ms Hort. Past. p. 299, presents us with the 
following Distich. 

Millia dena unus Templorum sustulit Annus ! 
Quam timeo in Pwnas vix satis unus erit ! 

" In the short circle of a year, 'tis said, 

Ten thousand Temples in the dust were laid ! 

To expiate a Crime of such a size, 

A thousand years, I fear, will scarce suffice." 



No. X. 



Extract of Cardinal Pole's Bull of Dispensation, as far as 
it relates to the new Bishopricks, Hospitals, fyc. erect- 
edby King Henry the Eighth. 

Autboritate Apostolica, per Literas Sanctissimi Domini 
nostri D. Julii Papas III. nobis concessa, et quafungimur in 
Lac parte, Tenore Prsesentium, dispensamus, quod omnes 
et singula? Cathedralium Ecclesiarum Erectiones, Hospita- 
lium et Scholarum Fundationes, tempore praeteriti Schis- 
matis, licet de facto nulliter attentatae, in eo Statu, in quo 
nunc sunt, perpetuo firmse et stabiles permaneant ; illisque 
Apostolic© Firraitatis robur adjicimus: ita ut non ea Autho- 
ritate quSiprius, sed ea quam eis tribuimus, facta? ab omni- 
bus cesseantur.— Bui. Disp. Card. Poli. 






No. XI. and XII. 113 

No. XI. 

Chanteries and Free Chapels, what? 

A. Chantery was, in the days of yore, understood to be a 
little Church, Chapel, or particular Altar in some Cathe- 
dral, Collegiate, AbbatiaJ, &c. Church, endowed with 
lands or other revenues, for the maintenance of one or more 
Priests, daily to sing Mass, and perform Divine Service for 
the benefit of the founders, or such as they appointed. 

Mr. Fuller reckons up 47 Chanteries in S. PauFs Church 
only ; and a modern writer gives us the following intelli- 
gence relative to York Minster. " It appears," says he, 
u by a catalogue of all the Chanteries within this Cathe- 
dral, as they were certified into the Court of Augmentation, 
anno 37 Hen. VIII. that there were above forty Altars 
erected in different parts of it." Drake 1 's Antiquities of 
York, B. II. p. 519, 520. Where, after this general ac- 
count of his own, our Author subjoins (from Dodsworth) a 
particular Catalogue, wherein the number of Chanteries in 
the Cathedral of York alone, amount to 44. 

Free Chapels were so called, because they were indepen- 
dent on any Church, and endowed with lands, &c. for 
much the same purposes as the former. 

The whole number of Chanteries and Free Chapels in 
England, before their total suppression, are computed to 
be about 2375; besides 110 Hospitals .and 90 Colleges ; 
which were all promiscuously involved in the same com- 
mon ruin. 



No. XII. 
A Blot, they say, is no Blot till it is hit : but whether we 
have not hit upon a Blot in the boasted Work of a late 
Ecclesiastical Historian, we leave the candid Header to 
judge and determine, after he has carefully compared the 
following genuine Words of Mr. Collier, with Mr. D — — -s 
disingenuous Quotation of them. 

Mr. Collier says : 

" .By the evidence of records, there were more righte- 
ous Monasteries in England, than righteous men in Sodom, 

Q 



114 Appendix i 

Yet this overbalance of merit could not divert, &c."< — 
Collier's EccL Hist. Vol. II. Book III. p. 161. 

Mr. D says: 

6i By the evidence of records, there were many more 
righteous in the Monasteries, than righteous men-in&o- 

dom."—D "sEccl. Hist. Part 1. Book I. p. 118. 

Now, admitting this to be true, it cannot, however, be 
allowed to be a true quotation : for there is, most certainly, 
a wide difference between Monasteries and men : between 
righteous Monasteries, and righteous in the Monasteries. 
But let us sift this author's meaning. 

He tells us, " There were many more righteous in the 
Monasteries, than righteous men in Sodom." Were there 
so? And how many more does he think there might be ? 
Were the righteous monastics twice as many more than the 
righteous men in Sodom ? And is this the meaning of his 
many more ? If it is, he makes but a bad compliment to all 
the religious in all the monasteries of both sexes in England. 
But supposing there were a thousand more (and this, to be 
sure, may be accounted many more) righteous in the mo- 
„ nasterieSj than righteous men in Sodom, what is all this to 
the purpose ? Still our Author stands guilty of a flagrant 
misquotation : for he ought not to have compared men with 
men, but Monasteries with men ; as Mr. Collier does. He- 
ought not to have suppressed Mr. Collier's righteous Mo- 
nasteries in England, and much less to have supplied their 
places with his righteous in the Monasteries. What can ex- 
cuse such a false step as this ? If it was made by mistake, 
it is (in a quotation) scarce excuseable : if by design, it can- 
not be too severely censured. 

As for Mr. Cottier, to give him his due, he treats the reli- 
gious with much more complaisance, good manners, and 
respect, than this comes to. He generously throws into the 
scales " more righteous 9$$Vl&#tZViZ0 in England, than 
righteous 9$£ll in Sodom ; which makes the overhallance of 
merit extremely visible and conspicuous on the part of the 
Jleligious Houses. ; 

What could induce or tempt Mr. D not only to alter 

Mr. Collier's words, but also to pervert the sense of them, 
we cannot pretend to say. But sure we are, that by such 
unguarded steps as these, the credit and reputation of an 
author will always stagger, if it does wot fall to the ground. 

Were it worth our while, we could point out and detect 
several other considerable flaws and blemishes in Mr. 
J) ' s Ecclesiastical Performance. But this (besides. 



No. XIII. and XIV. 115 

that it is a disagreeable task) is quite foreign to our pre- 
sent purpose. Neither indeed should we have taken no- 
tice of the abovementioned notable specimen of that Gentle- 
man's legerdemain, had it not happened to fall so unluckily 
across our way, that there was no possibility of getting over 
it, without a remark. 

See the second Part of these Memoirs, where Mr. 
Collier makes good his assertion, and actually enumerates 
" more righteous Monasteries in England, than righteous 
men in Sodom ;'■ and this from the evidence of records. 



No. XIII. 



An Instance of Stephen Marshall's /mw/Zc Zeal for the 
Good Old Cause. 

After the fight at Brentford, where the royalists came off 
victorious, " the King took about five hundred prisoners, for 
a taste of his mercy. For knowing well how miserably they 
had been misguided, he spared their lives, and gave them 
liberty, on no other conditions, but only the taking of their 
oaths not to serve against him. But the Houses of Parlia- 
ment being loth to lose so many good men, appointed Mr. 
Stephen Marshall (a principal zealot at that time in the 
cause of Presbyter} ) to call them together, and to absolve 
them from that oath : v\hich he performed with much confi- 
dence atjd authority." — D. Heylitis Hist, of the Presbyte- 
rians, L. 13, p. 448. 

The confidence of this man (or indeed of any other enthu- 
siastical bigot like himself) is not much to be wondered at; 
but from whence he had his authority to absolve the King's 
subjects (taken in actual rebellion) from the obligation- of 
a solemn oath, we profess we cannot easily comprehend. 






No. XIV. 

S mec ty m n u u s explained. 

X his ridiculous cant- word made its first appearance in 
public in the time of the grand rebellion- It comprehends a 
club of five Parliamentary Iioldersfbrtb, viz. Stephen Mar- 

Q2 



116 Appendix, 

shall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew New- 
commen, and William Spur stow ; the initial letters of whose 
names and surnames being put together, compose the sense- 
less word Smectymnuus. 

This famous club of modern saints published a book 
against Episcopacy and the Common Prayer in the year 
1641, to which they subscribed their names in capital let- 
ters, S. M. E. C. T. Y. M.N. U. U. S.— Not content with 
this, they afterwards published (by order of the Parliament) 
a scurrilous libel, entitled The King's Cabinet Unlocked; 
wherein all the tender and endearing expressions in the let- 
ters that passed between King Charles the First and his 
Royal Consort were most scandalously ridiculed, and basely 
burlesqued. 

If the Header should be desirous to know, by what mis- 
chance or accident the King's Cabinet happened to fall into 
the hands of the rebels, we can inform him, from good au- 
thority, that that misfortune was the unhappy consequence 
of the loss of the fatal battle of Naisby, where " the King's 
array being put to an absolute rout, the rebels made them- 
selves masters of his camp, carriage, and cannon, and, 
amongst other things, of his Majesty's cabinet, in which 
they found many of his letters, most of them written to the 
Queen, which afterwards were published by command of the 
Houses, to their great dishonour. For whereas the Athe- 
nians, on the like success, had intercepted a packet of let- 
ters from Philip, King of Macedon, their most bitter ene- 
my, unto several friends, they met with one to his Queen 
Olympias. The rest being all broke open before the Coun- 
cil, that they might be advertised of the King's purposes, the 
letter to the Queen was returned untouched ; the whole 
senate thinking it a shameful and dishonest act, to pry into 
the conjugal secrets betwixt man and wife. A modesty for 
which those of Athens stand as much commended by Hilla- 
dius Bisantimts, an ancient writer, as the chief leading 
men of the Houses of Parliament, are like to stand con- 
demned for want of it, in succeeding stories." — D. Heylin's 
Hist, of the Presbyterians, L. XIII. p. 471. 



117 



No. XV. 



A Copy of King Henry the Eighth's last Will and Testa- 
ment, as far as it regards Religious Matters. 

" In the name of God, and of the glorious and Blessed 
Virgin our Lady S. Mary, and of all the holy company of 
heaven, We Henry, by the grace of God King of England, 
France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and in earth, 
immediately under God, the supreme Head of the Church 
of England, and also of Ireland, of that name the Eighth ; 
calling to our remembrance the great gifts and benefits of 
Almighty God, given to Us in this transitory life, do give 
unto him our most lowly and humble thanks, acknowleding 
ourselves insufficient in any part, to deserve or recompense 
the same. But for fear that we have not worthily received 
the same ; and considering further also, that We be (as all 
mankind are) mortal, and born in sin ; believing neverthe- 
less, and hoping, that every Christian creature, living here 
in this transitory world under God, dying in stedfast and 
perfect faith, and endeavouring and exercising himself to ex- 
ecute in his lifetime, if he hath leisure, such good deeds and 
charitable works as the Scripture commendeth, and as may 
be to the honour and pleasure of God, is ordained, by 
Christ's Passion, to be saved, and attain eternal life : of 
which number W r e verily trust, by his grace, to be one. 

" And that every creature, the more high that he is in 
estate, honour, and authority in this world, the more he is 
bound to love, serve, and thank God, and the more dili- 
gently to endeavour himself to do good and charitable 
works, to the laud, honour, and praise of Almighty God, 
and the profit of his soul. We also, calling to remem- 
brance the dignity, estate, honour, rule, and government, 
that Almighty God hath called Us unto in this world, and 
that neither We, nor any other creature-mortal, knoweth 
the time or place, when or where, it shall please Almighty 
God to call him out of this transitory world ; willing, there- 
fore, and minding, with God's grace, before our passage 
out of the same, to dispose and order our later mind, will, 
and testament, in that sort, as We trust it shall be acceptable 
unto Almighty God, our only Saviour Jesus Christ, and all 
the holy company of heaven, and the due satisfaction of all 
godly brethren in earth, have now, being of whole and 
perfect mind, adhering wholly to the right faith of Christ, 



118 Appendix, 

and his doctrine, repenting also of our old detestable life, 
and being in perfect will and mind, by his grace, never to 
return to the same, nor such like. And minding, by God's 
grace, never to vary therefrom, as long as any remembrance, 
breath, or inward knowledge doth or may remain within 
this mortal body ; most humbly and heartily do commend 
and bequeath our soul to Almighty God, who, in person of 
the Son, redeemed the same with his most precious body 
and blood in time of his Passion : and for our better remem- 
brance thereof, hath left here with us, in his Church Mili- 
tant, the consecration and administration of his precious 
body and blood, to our no little consolation and comfort, 
if we thankfully accept the same, as he lovingly, and un- 
deservedly on man's behalf, hath ordained it, for our only 
benefit, and not his. 

" Also We do instantly require and desire the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, his Mother, with all the holy company of 
heaven, continually to pray for Us while We live in this 
world, and in the time of passing out of the same, that we 
may the sooner attain everlasting life, after our departure 
out of this transitory life, which We do' both hope and claim 
by Christ's Passion. And as for my body, which, when 
the soul is departed, shall then remain but as a cadaver, 
and so return to the vile matter it was made of, were it not 
for the crown and dignity which God has called Us unto, 
and that We should not be counted an infringer of honest 
and worldly policies and customs, when they be not contrary 
to God's laws, We could be content to have it buried in any 
place accustomed for Christian folks, were it never so vile, 
for it is but ashes, and to ashes it shall return, Neverthe- 
less, because We would be loth, in the reputation of the peo- 
ple, to do injury to the dignity which We are unworthily 
called unto, We are content, and also by these presents, our 
last will and testament, to will and order, that our body be 
buried and interred in the Quire of the College of Windsor, 
middle-way between the stabs and the high altar, and there 
be made and set, as soon as conveniently may be done after 
our decease, by our executors, at our costs and charges, if it 
be not done by Us, in our life-time ; an honourable tomb for 
our bones to rest in, which is well onward, and almost made 
already, with a fair grate about it, in which We will also 
thatthe bones and body of our true and loving wife Queen Jane 
be put also : and that there be provided, ordained, and set, 
at the costs and charges of Us, ci of our executors, if it be 
not done in our lifetime, a convenient altar, honourably pre- 



No. XV. 119 

pared and apparelled, with all manner of things requisite and 
necessary for daily Masses there to be said perpetually, 
while the world shall endure. And also We will, and espe- 
cially desire and require, that where and whensoever it shall 
please God to call Us out of this transitory world to his 
infinite mercy and grace, be it beyond the sea, or in any 
other place, without our realm of England, or within the 
same, that our executors, as soon as they conveniently may, 
shall cause all divine service for dead folks to be celebrated 
for Us, in the next and most proper place where it shall 
fortune Us to depart out of this transitory life : and ever, 
We will, that whensoever and wheresoever it shall please 
God to call out of this transitory life to his infinite mercy 
and grace, be it within the realm or without, that our execu- 
tors, in as godly, brief, and convenient haste as they may 
or can, order, prepare, and cause our body to be removed, 
conveyed, and brought into the said College of If indsor, 
and the service of Placebo and Dlrige, with a Sermon and 
Mass on the morrow, at our costs and charges, devoutly to 
be done, observed, and solemnly kept, there to be buried 
and interred in the place appointed for our said tomb, to be 
made for the same intent, and all this to be done in as de- 
vout-wise as can or may be : And we will and charge our 
executors, that they dispose and give alms to the most poor 
and needy people that may be found, common beggars as 
much as may be avoided, in as short space as possible they 
may, after our departure out of this transitory life, one 
thousand marks of lawful money of England, partly in the 
same place and thereabout, where it shall please God Al- 
mighty to call us to his mercy, partly by the way, and part 
in the same place of our burial, after their discretions : and 
to move the poor people that shall have our alms, to pray 
heartily to God for the remission of our offences, and the 
wealth of our souls. 

" And We will, that with as convenient speed as may be 
done, after our departure out of this world (if it be not done 
in our life) that the Dean and Canons of Windsor shall have 
manors, lands, tenements, and spiritual promotions, to 
the yearly value of VI C pounds, over all charges, made 
sure to them and to their successors for ever, upon these 
conditions hereafter ensuing, and for the due accomplish- 
ment and full performance of all other things contained 
within the same, in the form of an indenture, signed with 
our own hand, which shall be passed by way of covenant for 
that purpose, between the said Dean and Canons and our 



/ 



] 20 Appendix, 

Executors (if it pass not between Us and the said Dean and 
Canons in our life) : that is to say, the said Dean and Ca- 
nons, and their successors for ever, shall find two Priests to 
say Masses at the said Altar, to be made where We have 
before appointed our tomb to be made and stand. 

" And also after our decease to keep yearly four solemn 
Obits for Us within the said College of Windsor, and at 
every of the said Obits to cause a solemn Sermon to be 
made, and also at every of the said Obits to give to poor 
people in alms ten pounds, and also to give for ever yearly 
to thirteen poor men, which shall be called Poor Knights, to 
every of them twelve pence a day, and once in the year, 
yearly for ever, along gown of white cloth, with the Garter 
upon the breast, embroidered with the shield and cross of 
S. George within the Garter, and a Mantle of red cloth, and 
to such one of the thirteen Poor Knights as shall be ap- 
pointed to behead and governor of them iii. I. vj. s. viij.d. 
yearly for ever, over and beside the said xij. d. by the day. 
And also to cause, every Sunday in the year for ever, a 
Sermon to be made at Windsor aforesaid, as in the said in- 
denture and covenant shall be more fully and particularly 
expressed ; willing, charging, and requiring our son Prince 
Edward, all our executors and councellours which shall be 
named hereafter, and all other our heirs and successors, 
which shall be Kings of this Realm, as they will answer be- 
fore God Almighty at the dreadful day of judgment, that 
they, and every of them, do see that the said indenture and 
assurance to be made between Us and the said Dean 
and Canons, or between them and our executors, and all 
things therein contained, may be duly put in execution, and 
be observed and kept for ever perpetually, according to this 
our last Will and Testament."— iter's Ch. Hist. Book V. 
p. 243. 

" The alterations in religion which immediately follow- 
ed," says Mr. Collier, " made this part of the King's Will 
insignificant. The court [of King Edward] did not be- 
lieve any applications of the living could be serviceable to 
the dead ; and thus the Masses, Obits, and Charities de- 
signed to relieve him in the other world, were dropt, not- 
withstanding his solemn charge to the contrary. Sanders 
will have this a judicial misfortune upon King Henry, for 
defrauding the Wills of so many Founders of Chanteries 
and Religious Houses."— Collier's Ecclesiastical History, 
Vol. II. Book IV. p. 220. 



No. xvi. m 

And Mr. Fuller very gravely concludes : "It is but just 
with God, that he who had but too much of his will done 
when living-, should have less, when dead, of his testament 
performed."— Ful. Ch. Hist. Book V. p. 2-53. 



No. xvr. 



King Henry the Eighth** last Speech to his Parliament : 
with some short Reflections upon it. 

Jl he following harangue, which we are going to rehearse 
for the entertainment of our Reader, is commonly called 
King Henry the Eighth 's last Speech in Parliament ; tho% 
perhaps, it may not improperly be styled both his first and 
last Speech to that August Assembly : for this is the only 
one to be found upon record, that deserves the title of his 
Majesty^ s most gracious Speech from the Throne, in the lite- 
ral sense of the words. 

For once then (and but once) Henry took it into his 
head to supply the Chancellor's place ; and to the Speaker 
of the House of Commons, (who, in an elegant oration, had 
highly extolled the King's notable qualities, in presenting 
the Bills for the Royal Assent) his Majesty, in person, re- 
turned the following answer : 

" Altho' my Chancellor for the time being hath, before 
this time, used very eloquently and substantially to make 
answer to such orations as have been set forth in this High 
Court of Parliament, yet he is not so able to open and set 
forth my mind and meaning, and the secrets of my heart, in. 
so plain and ample a manner as I myself am, and can do. 
Wherefore I, taking upon me to answer your eloquent 
oration, Mr. Speaker, say, that where you, in the name of 
our beloved Commons, have both praised and extolled me 
for the notable qualities that you have conceived to be in me, 
I most heartily thank you all, that you have put me in re- 
membrance of my duty; which is, to endeavour myself to 
obtain and get such excellent qualities and necessary vir- 
tues, as a Prince or Governor should and ought to have ; of 
which gifts I recognize myself both bare and barren : but of 
such small qualities as God hath endowed me withal, I 
render his goodness my most humble thanks, intending with 
n.11 my wit and diligence, to get and acquire to me such 
notable virtues and princely qualities as you have alledged 

R 



\M Appendix, 

to be incorporated in my person. These thanks for your 
loving admonition and good counsel first remembered, I 
eftsoons thank you again, because that you, considering' 
our great charge, not for our pleasure, but for our defence ; 
not for our gain, but to our cost, which we have lately sus- 
tained, as well in defence against your and our enemies, as 
for the conquest of that fortress, which was to this realm 
most unpleasant and noisome, and shall be, by God's grace, 
hereafter to our nation most profitable and pleasant j hav- 
ing, of your own minds, granted to us a certain subsidy, 
here in an act specified, which verily we take in good part, 
regarding more your kindness, than the profit thereof; as he 
that s^etteth more by your loving hearts, than by your sub- 
stance. Besides this hearty kindness, I cannot a little re- 
joice, when I consider the perfect trust and confidence 
which you have put in me, as men having undoubted hope 
and unfeigned belief in my doings and just proceedings for 
you ; who without my desire or request, have committed to 
mine order and disposition all Chanteries, Colleges, Hospi- 
tals, and other places specified in a certain Act, firmly 
trusting that I will order them to the glory of God and the 
profit of the commonwealth. Surely if I, contrary to your 
expectation, should suffer the Ministers of the Church to 
decay, or Learning, which is so great a jewel, to be mi- 
nished, orpoor and miserable to be relieved, you might say, 
that I, being in so special a trust as I am in this case, were 
no trusty friend to you, nor charitable to mine, nor even a 
Christian; neither a lover of the public wealth, nor yet one 
that feared God, to whom account must be rendered of all 
our doings. Doubt not, I pray you, but your expectation 
shall be served more godly and goodly than you will wish or 

desire, as hereafter you shall plainly perceive. [Great 

promises, but no performances /] 

" Now, since I find such kindness on your part towards 
me, I cannot chuse but love and favour you, affirming that 
no prince in the world more favoureth his subjects than I do 
you, nor no subjects or commons more loved and obeyed 
their Sovereign Lord, than I perceive you do me ; for 
whose defence my treasure shall not be hidden, nor, if ne- 
cessity require, my person shall not be unadventured. Yet, 
although I wish you, and you wish me, to be in this perfeei 
love and concord, this friendly amity cannot continue, ex- 
cept both you, my Lords Temporal and my Lords Spiritual, 
and you my loving subjects, study and take pains to amend 
one thing, which surely is amiss, and far out of order, id 



Ao. xvi. m 

which I most heartily require you ; which is, that charity 
and concord is not among you, but discord and dissention 
beareth rule in every place. S. Paul saith to the Corinthi- 
ans in the thirteenth chapter : Charity is gentle. Charity 
is not envious. Charity is not proud, and so forth, in 
>he^said chapter. Behold then, what love and charity is 
among you, when one calleth another Heretic and Anabap- 
tist, and he calleth him again, Papist, Hypocrite, and Pha- 
risee. Be these tokens of charity amongst you ? Are 
these signs of fraternal love between you? No : no. I 
assure you, that this lack of charity amongst yourselves will 
be the binderance and assuaging of the fervent love between 
us, as I said before, except this wound be salved, and 
clearly made whole. I must needs judge the fault and oc- 
casion of this discord to be, partly by negligence of you, the 
fathers and preachers of the spirituality. 

" I see here daily, that you of the Clergy preach one 
against another, envy against one another, teach one con- 
trary to another, without charity or discretion. Some be too 
stiff in their old mumpsimus, and others too busy and curi- 
ous in their new sumpsimus. Thus all men, almost, be in 
variety and discord, and few or none preach truly and sin- 
cerely the Word of God, as they ought to do. Shall I judge 
you charitable persons, doing this ? No : no. I cannot do 
so. Alas 1 how can the poor souls live in concord, when 
you, preachers, sow amongst them, in your sermons, de- 
bate and discord ? Of you they look for light, and you 
bring them to darkness. Amend these crimes, 1 exhort 
you, and set out God's Word, both by true preaching and 
good example-giving; or else, I, whom God hath appointr 
ed his Vicar and High Minister, [His a wonder he did not 
call himself High Priest] here will see these divisions ex- 
tinct, and these enormities corrected, according to my very 
duty, or else I am an unprofitable servant, and an untrue 
officer. 

" Altho' 1 say that the spiritual men be in some fault, 
that charity is not kept amongst you, yet you of the tempo- 
rality be not clear and unspotted of malice and envy ; for 
you rail at Bishops, speak scandalously of Priests, and re- 
buke and taunt Preachers, both contrary to good order and 
Christian fraternity. If you know surely, that a Bishop or 
Preacher erreth, or teaeheth perverse doctrine, come and 
declare it to some of our Council, or to Us , to whom is 
committed by God the High Authority to reform end order 

ch causes and behaviour; and be not judges yoursyelv^es, 

R2 



l'2i Appendix , 

of your fantastic opinions and vain expositions ; for in 
causes you may lightly err. And altho' you may be per- 
mitted to read the holy Scripture in your mother tongue, 
you must understand, it is licensed you so to do, only to in- 
form your consciences, and instruct your children and fa- 
mily, and not to dispute, and make Scripture a railing and 
taunting stock against Priests and Preachers, as many- 
light persons do. I am very sorry to know and hear, how 
unreverently that most precious jewel, the Word of God, is 
disputed, rhimed, sung, and jangled in every alehouse and 
tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the 
same ; and yet I am even as much sorry, that the readers of 
the same follow it, in doing, so faintly and coldly. For of this 
I am sure, that charity was never so faint amongst you, and 
virtuous and good living was never less used, nor God him^ 
self, amongst Christians, was never less reverenced, ho- 
noured, and served. 

" Therefore, as I said before, he in charity one with 
another, like brother and brother, love, dread, and fear 
God ; to the which I, as your Supreme Head and Sovereign 
Lord, exhort and require you ; and then, I doubt not but 
that love and leave, that I spoke of in the beginning, shall 

never be discouraged or broken between us." HalVs 

Chronicle, quoted in the Parliam. Hist, of England, Vol. 
III. p,205. 

REFLEXIONS, 

Thus the Royal Preacher exerts his oratorial talents, and 
displays the whole stock of his eloquence, only to recount, in 
the conclusion, (what he could not remedy) the dire effects 
of his own most godly and. goodly reformation, under the fol- 
lowing heads. 

First, the want of Charity amongst all sorts of people, 
whether church or lay men. For of this I am sure, that 
Charity was never so faint amongst you. 

Secondly, an almost total disuse of virtue and piety. 
Virtuous and good living was never less used. 

Thirdly, the scandalous abuses and vile prophanations of 
the holy Scriptures in alehouses and taverns, contrary to the 
true weaning and doctrine of the same. 

Fourthly, a visible decay of the worship and service of 
God : God himself, amongst Christians, was never less re- 
verenced, honoured, and served. And ail these complaints, 
it seems, are grounded upon certainty and conviction : For 
of this I am sure. 



No. XVI. ■ 125 

Fifthly, Bishops were disrespectfully treated, and railed 
at. Priests and Preachers were publicly rebuked, taunted, 
and ridiculed. And by this means, both the Clergy and 
their functions were rendered despicable in the eyes of the 
populace. 

Lastly, disserttion, like a deluge, overspread the face of 
the land ! Discord and dissention beareth rule in every 
place ! A frightful picture of the confused and tumultuary 
state of religion in those unhappy days, tho' drawn by the 
band of a King ! 

And since the death of this High Minister of the Church, 
may it not be questioned, whether our moralshave acquired 
any great matter of improvement, or our religion either, 
excepting only in the article of variety ? In which particu- 
lar, it must be confessed, we have succeeded perhaps 
beyond expectation, perhaps to the wonder and astonish- 
ment of all Europe ! 

To conclude, if this King had reason to complain, that 
even in his time almost all men ivere in variety and discord, 
can we safely say we have no grounds at present for ihe like 
complaint ? Does it appear that our religious affairs are in 
a more amicable posture now-a-days ? Is it not fact, that 
a prodigious variety of religious opinions is, at this time, 
professed and propagated within the precincts of this island? 
And is it not a fact too, that they are productive of no 
small discord amongst us ? And to whom do we stand in- 
debted for these signal advantages, but to the Great King 
Harry ? This is the godly and goodly Monarch, who, out 
of his excessive goodness and generosity, has bequeathed to 
us and our heirs lor ever the precious legacy of variety and 
discord I 

Add to this, that his breaking down the fences of the 
Church, to let in a rabble of New Gospellers ; his mal- 
treating the Bishops and Clergy, and his bullying them 
out of their properties ; his disincorporating Religious So- 
cieties, and demolishing their houses, are facts, glori- 
ous facts ; and such as, beyond all peradventure, will 
powerfully recommend to the latest posterity the immortal 
memory of King Henry the Eighth. 



126 Appendix, 



No. XVII. 

C ran Bier's Ordination Faculties: extracted out of his Com- 
mission. 

ci EdwardusSextus, D. G. Ang. Fra. et Hib. Rex F.D^ 
ac in terra Ecel. Ang. et Hib. Supremum Caput. Revmo. in 
Christo Patri, Thomas Cantuariensi Episcopo, saiutem. 
Quandoquidem ononis Jurisdicendi Authoritas, atque etiam 
Jurisdictio omnimoda, tam ilia quae Ecclesiastiea dicitur 
quiim Ssscularis, a Regia Potestate, velut a Supremo Capite, 
emanat. — Ad ordinandos igitur quoseunque, infra Dissces, 
tuam Cant, ad omnes, etiam sacros, et Presbyteratus Or- 
dines promovend. Vices nostras, Tenore Prsesentium, tibi 
committimus, ac liberam Facultatem coneedimus, teque li- 
centiamus per prassentes, ad nostrum beneplacitum duntaxai 
duraturas. In cujus rei testimonium prigseotes iiteras in- 
de fieri, et sigilli nostri, quo ad Causas Ecclesiasticas uti- 
mur, appensione jussimus muniri. Datum 7 die mensis 
Feb. 1546, et regni nostri primo." 

See the Commission itself at full length, (and compre- 
hending all the duties of a Bishop) in Bumetfs Collection 
0/ Records, Book II. No. II. 



No. XVIIL 

The Rubrick. 

iJ " X he Minister shall take so much bread and wine as 
ishall suffice for the persons appointed to receive the holy 
Communion, laying the bread upon the corporas, or else in 
the patten, or in some other comely thing prepared for that 
purpose. And putting the wine into the chalice, or else in 
some fair and convenient cup prepared for that use, (if the 
chalice will not serve) putting thereto a little pure and 
clean water." p. 22. 

% " For avoiding all matters and occasions of dissention, 
it is meet that the Bread prepared for the Communion be 
made through all this realm after one sort and fashion : 
that is to say, unleavened and round as it was afore, but 
without all manner of print, and something more larger and 
thicker than it was, so that it may be aptly divided in di- 



No. XIX. 127 

Terse pieces, and every one shall be divided into two pieces 
at the least, or more, by the discretion of the Minister, and 
so distributed. And men must not think less to be received 
in Part, than in the Whole, but in each of them the whole 
Body of our Saviour Jesus Christ." p. 43. 

See the Form and Manner of consecrating" and adminis- 
tering the Holy Communion, according to the Liturgy of 
King Edward VI. — Printed at London by Edward Whit- 
church, anno Bom. 1549, mense Mail; and reprinted by 
H. Parker 1717. 



No. XIX. 



Jo P. Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, Vol. L 
Book II. p. 172, confesses thus much of Cranmer and his 

opinions. •" It is true he [Crewmen] had some singular 

opinions about Ecclesiastical Functions and Offices, which 
he seemed to make wholly dependent on the Magistrate, as 
much as the civil were." And to do honour to his Atlta- 
nasius, our singular Historian has took care to preserve 
these singular opinions in his own most singular Collection 
of Records ; where (among many other exotics) we meet 
with the following remarkable Questions and Answers, in a 
Paper intitled : 

" The Resolutions of several Bishops and Divines, of 
" some Questions concerning the Sacraments, &c." 
of which the following only are to our purpose. 

9th Question. 

" Whether the Apostles, lacking a higher power, as not 
having a Christian King, made Bishops by that necessity, 
or by authority given by God?" 

Cranmer 's Answer. 

" All Christian Princes have committed unto them, im- 
mediately of God, the cure of all their subjects, as well con- 
cerning the administration of God's Word, for the cure of 
soifts, as concerning the ministration of things political, and 
civil governance. The Ministers of God's Word, under his 
Majesty, be the Bishops, Parsons, Vicars, and such other 
Priests, as be appointed by his Highness to that ministra- 
tion.— All the said officers and ministers, as well of that sort 



P Q 



j 28 Appendix, 

as the other, [r e. ecclesiastical as well as civil] be appoint* 
ed, assigned, and elected by the laws and orders of Kings 
and Princes. In the admission of many of these officers, 
[Bishops for example] be divers comely ceremonies and so- 
lemnities used [in ordaining' them] which be norof necessi- 
ty, but only for a good order and seemly fashion ; for if 
such offices and ministrations were committed without such 
solemnity [of ordination] they were nevertheless truly 
committed : and there is no more promise of God, that grace 
is given in committing of the Ecclesiastical Office [by Ordi- 
natiou] than it is in the committing of the Civil Office [by 
the King's Letters Patents]. In the Apostles' time, when 
there were no Christian Princes, by whose authority minis- 
ters of God's Word might be appointed, there was no re- 
medy then [no authority from God, as he supposes] for ap- 
pointing Ministers. So sometimes the Apostles, and 

others, appointed Ministers of God's Word, sometimes 
the people did chuse such as they thought meet." 

Barlow's Answer. 

" That because they [the Apostles] lacked a Christian 
Prince, by that necessity they ordained other Bishops." 

10th Question. 

" Whether Bishops or Priests were first ? And if the 
Priests were first, then the Priest made the Bishop." 

Crammer's Answer. 

" The Bishops and Priests were at one time, and were no 
two things, but one office, in the beginning of Christ's 
Religion " 

Barlow' } s Answer. 
u In the beginning they were all one." 

11th Question. 

" Whether a Bishop hath authority to make a Priest, by 
the Scripture, or no ? And whether any, but only a Bi- 
shop, may make a Priest ?" 

Crammer's Answer. 

" A Bishop may make a Priest by the Scripture, and so 
mav Princes and Governors also, and that by the authority 
of God committed to them, and the people also by their elec- 



No. XX. and XXL 129 

lion ; for as we read, that Bishops have done it, so Christi- 
an Emperors and Princes usually have done it ; and the 
people, before Christian Princes were, commonly did elect 
their Bishops and Priests." 

Barlow's Answer. 
" That Bishops have no authority to make priests, with- 
out they be authorized of the Christian Prince. That laymen 
have otherwhiles made Priests." 

12th Question. 
" Whether in the New Testament be required any conse- 
cration of a Bishop and Priest, or only appointing- to the 
office be sufficient ?" 

Cranmer's Answer. 
" In the New Testament, he that is appointed to be a 
Bishop or a Priest needeth no Consecration, by the Scrip- 
ture ; for election or appointing thereunto is sufficient." 

Barlow's Answer. 
" That only appointing is sufficient, without consecrati- 
on." — Burnet' 's Collection of Records, Book III. p. 220. 



No. XX. 



Q. Elizabeth's dispensative Clause, inserted in her Com- 
mission for Parker's Consecration. 

" J^upplentes nihilominus, Suprema Authoritate nostra 
Regia, si quid, aut in his, queejuxta Mandatum nostrum 
praedictum, per Vos fient, aut in Vobis, aut vestrum ali- 
quo, Conditione, Statu et Facilitate vestris, ad Praemissa 
facienda^ desit, aut deerit eorum, quae per Statuta hujus 
Regni, aut per leges Ecclesiasticas, in hac Parte, requi- 
runtur, aut necessariasunt : Temporis ratione, et Rerum ne- 
cessitate, id postulante." BramhaW s Consecration and 

Succession of Protestant Bishops justified, p. 88. 



No. XXI. 



w Ac omnes Ecclesiasticas, Sasculares, seu quorumvis 
Ordinem Regulares Personas, qua? aliquas Impetrationea, 
Dispensationes, Concessiones, Gratias et Indulta, tarn Or-' 
dines quam Beneficia Ecclesiastics, seu alias Spirituales 

S 



130 Appendix, No. XXII. 

Materias, prsetensa Authoritate Supremitatis Ecclesiae An- 
glicanae, licet nulliter et defacto obtinuerint, et ad cor re- 
. versae, Ecclesia? Unitati restitutae fuerint, in suis Ordinibus 
et Beneficiis, per Nos ipsos, sen a Nobis ad id deputatos, 
misericorditer reeipiemus, proutmultae janf receptee fuerunt, 
secumque super his, opportune in Domino dipensabimus." 

■ Card. Pole's Faculties, quoted by Bp. Bramhall in his 

Consecrat. and Succession of Proi. Bps. Jitstif. p. 64. 



No. XXII 



Speed's Account of Bishop Fox's Mausoleum in Winchester 

Cathedral. 

" JL he Cathedral Church, built by Kentvolf, King 1 of the 
JVest Saxons, that had been Amphibalu^ , S. Peter's, Swy- 
thin's, and now Holy Trinity, is the sanctuary for the 
ashes of many English King's. For herein great Egbert, 
anno 836, with his son Ethelwolfe in 857 ; here Elf red, 
Oxford's Founder, in 901, with his Queen Elswith in 901 ; 
here the first Edmund before the conquest, in 924, with his 
sons Elf red and Elsnard ; here Ed red in 955, and Edwy 
in 956, both Kings of England ; here Queen Emme in 1052, 
with her Danish Lord Canute in 1035, and his son Hardi- 
canute in J042 ; and here lastly the Normans, Richard and 
Rufus in 1100, were interred. Their bones, by Bishop 
Fox, were gathered and shrined in little gilt coffers fixed 
upon a wall in the quire, where still they remain carefully 
preserved."— Speed's Theat. of the Empire of G. B. (llant- 
shire), ]). 13. 

They remained so indeed in Speed's time, (for he pub- 
lished Ills Theater in the reign of K. James the First); but in 
the subsequent civil wars, the fanatics made sad havoc in 
Cathedral Churches, and particularly in Tf'inchesfer Cathe- 
dral. See the Supplement to the 2d Part of these Memoirs. 

Note on Bishop Scot : see his Speech, p. 95.— Of this learned and worthy 
Prelate I am sorry it is not in my power to subjoin so full and satisfactory an ac- 
count as I could wish, being forced to confess, that, after the strictest search, I 
iind very little recorded of him in our Church History : from whence I have not 
been able to glean any thing material, b< sides the following particulars, viz. that 

" D. Scot was consecrated Bp. of Chester in 1.156. "That upon the com- 
mencement of Q. Elizabeth's persecution against the Catholics, lie was deprived 
of his Bislioprie^asid committed to durance, for his refusingto lake the Suprema- 
cy Oath: and that, having the good fortune to escape from his imprisonment, htt 
became a voluntary exile in Flanders, and died at Lduvain." 

The End of the Appendix. 



MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



REFORMATION OF ENGLAND 

IN TWO PARTS. 

THE WHOLE COLLECTED 

CHIEFLY FROM ACTS OF PARLIAMENT 

AND 

PROTESTANT HISTORIANS. 



BY CONSTANTIUS ARCHjEOPHILUS. 



->€3<- 



" But thou of force must one Religion own ; 
And only one, and that the right alone : 
To find that right one, ask thy rev'rend sire ; 
Let him of his, and him of his inquire." 



S2 



132 



PART II, 



THE TRANSACTIONS OF K. HENRY VIII. AS SUPREME 
HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 



§ I.*- King Henry VIII. [being declared and acknowledged 
the Supreme Head of the Church of England) publishes 
Injunctions to the Clergy, and Articles of Religion ; in 
both which he takes upon himself to act in the Character 
of a Supreme Ordinary. 

Having finished our general account of the manner how, 
as also with what views, and upon what motives, the Spirit- 
ual Supremacy was invaded and carried by King Henry 
VIII. King Edward VI. and Q. Elizabeth, we shall now 
proceed to a more circumstantial detail of their conduct with 
regard to Ecclesiastical Affairs : it being our intention, in 
the Second Part of these Memoirs, to display more dis- 
tinctly and particularly the Use they made of their Spiritual 
Authority. 

Now as soon as King Henry VIII. was acknowledged by 
the Clergy to be supreme in Church Matters as well as 
State Affairs, he procured a Bill to pass both Houses, that 

* " That no constitution or ordinance shall be hereafter by 
the Clergy enacted, promulged, or put in execution, unless 
the King's Highness do approve the same by his authority 
and royal assent : and his advice, aid, and favour, be also 
interponed for the execution of every such constitution, to 
be made in time coming among his Majesty's subjects."— 
And by virtue of this and some other acts of a similar na- 
ture (to be seen in Mr. Collier's Collection of Records, 
No. XIX. XX.) the Clergy are expressly required and 
enjoined neither to attempt, alledge, claim, or put in use 
any of the old canons, without leave from the Crown ; nor 
yet to enact, promulge, or execute any new ones. And thus 
the King became most absolutely, in fact as well as title, the 
Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England. 

And now, the power of the Clergy being utterly sup- 

* Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. B. i. p. 68 ; and his Collection of Records, 

No. XVII. 






The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. %c. 133 

pressed by the superior force of disabling Acts, and the 
Authority of the Church being- laid asleep, Henry lays hold 
of the favourable opportunity to assume the character of 
Supreme Ordinary, and adventures to appear as such in the 
publication of his Injunctions, which Bishop Burnet thinks 
were the first Act of his Supremacy. — [The Reader will find 
a short Abstract ©f them in the Appendix, No. VI.]— As to 
the general contents of them, they are as follow, viz. All 
Ecclesiastical Incumbents were, in the first place, to cry- 
down the Pope's Power, and preach up the abrogation of 
some superfluous holy days. They were to inform the peo- 
ple of the particulars which they ought to teach their chil- 
dren. They were to take care that the sacraments, &c. be 
reverently administered. They were not (except uposi 
urgent occasions) to frequent taverns or alehouses, nor in- 
dulge (after meals) in drinking, tables or card-playing, 
but be mindful to give good exam pie. The next three arti- 
cles regard the proper management of the Clergy's Reve- 
nues, and the due reparations of their Churches, Chajjel*, 
and Mansion-houses ; and the last article contains the 
penalties to be inflicted on the violators or infringers oi hi* 
Majesty's Injunctions ; which amounted to suspension and 
sequestration. — And such were the regulations prescribed to 
the Clergy. 

But it seemed a much more difficult task, how to regulate 
and keep within 'proper bounds the rest of the people, who 
now began to run mad after new gospels and new religions. 
For the seeds of heterodoxy 'having been sown in almost every 
corner of the nation, they soon sprouted up, and soon pro- 
mised (what indeed they have since produced) a plentiit - '. 
harvest of religious oddities. 

But of all the unorthod.oxies of the times, none seemed 
more remarkable than the Mala Dogmata, under which de- 
nomination the absurd opinions of the Zuinglian Gospeller^ 
were comprised. They had lately been imported from 
Swisserland ; and, like other foreign exotics, were not a 
little admired (and perhaps improved too) by the English, 
who naturally delight in novelties. — [The Reader may gra- 
tify his curiosity with a taste of them in the Appendix, 
No. VII.] 

By way of counterpoise to these enormities in casuistry 
and christian morality, the King soon found himself ob- 
liged to publish a system of his belief. It was comprised in 
aset of articles, which do not seem indeed to swerve or re- 
cede, in any material point, from the doctrines admitted 



134 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

and defined in former General Councils. Neither have they, 
on the other hand, any thing in them that may seem to favour 
the modern Church of England : for they strenuously assert 
and maintain, that Penance is a Sacrament instituted by 
Christ : the necessity of Auricular Confession : the corporal 
Presence of Christ in the Eucharist : the Use of Images : 
Invocation of Saints: Purgatory, and Prayers for the 
Dead. — [See a short abstract of these Articles in the Appen- 
dix, No. VIII.] 

In perusing these Articles, (which, as well as the Injunc- 
tions, are directed to the Clergy) one cannot help taking 
notice of the King's lofty style of — We think — We will — We 
command — We have caused to be published — We have com- 
mitted our people to their [the Clergy's] Spiritual Charge. 

From which last expression in particular, it is pretty 

plain, that the Clergy now held their Spiritual Commissions 
from the King, in quality of their Supreme Ordinary. 

Cardinal Pole takes notice of this unexampled stretch of 
the regale, in his answer to Bp. Tonstal, who, it seems, 
had endeavoured to clear the King from the imputation of 
-invading the Sacerdotal Office, because he did not pretend 
to preach, or administer the sacraments. " To this," says 
-Mr. Collier, "the Cardinal rejoins, that his taking the 
title of Supreme Head of the Church supposed him the 
fountain of Spiritual Jurisdiction : and in case he had au- 
thority to delegate others, and commissionate them for such 
offices, does it not follow, that he might execute the same 
whenever he pleased ? Farther, if the administration of the 
sacraments is the highest spiritual office, must it not belong 
to the Supreme Ordinary and be annexed to the Head of the 
Church ?"— [See Bp. Tonstafs Letter, and the Cardinal's 
Answer, in Mr. Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. which, for 
brevity's sake, we omit.] 



§ Z.—The King takes it into his Head to reform the Regu- 
lars : and procures an Act of Parliament to dissolve the 
lesser Houses. .. The Preambled that Act. . .Corrodies 
explained. 

Henry having reformed the Secular Clergy, by virtue of 
ltis Injunctions, Articles, and what not, his next resolve 
was, to introduce a reformation amongst the Regulars ; but 
Btich a reformation as proved fatal to them in the event, and 



, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 135 

concluded with the total extirpation of them all. True it is, 
that the religious inhabitants were first assaulted ; but this 
was only a false attack, the true one being- carried on, all the 
while, against their houses. This was the bait that drew 
on the Reformation ; and the riches of the abbies, &c. may 
be said, in one sense, to have contributed not a little to their 
own ruin. 

Now, in order to come at his prey with more ease and ex- 
pedition, his Majesty had the precaution to get all the Mo- 
nasteries in England put under the immediate jurisdiction 
of the Crown. And this was done by virtue of a statute 
enacted for that purpose, part of which is as follows : 

* As for Abbots, Priors, and all places exempt and for- 
merly under tjie immediate jurisdiction of the Pope, these 
religious fraternities were to make their appeal immediately 
to the Court of Chancery ; neither were any Archbishops or 
Bishops to disturb their application to the King, or inter- 
meddle with such matters.' — Stat. 25. II. VIII. c. 20. 

"* By this clause, all the religious, instead of being re- 
turned to the jurisdiction of their diocesans and metropoli- 
tan, were put under the regale, and the King is enacted 
their Ordinary. This provision, we may imagine, was con- 
trived to bring on the dissolution of the Abbies : for now the 
King was empowered to visit the Monasteries, to inspect 
their behaviour, and proportion the correction at his plea- 
sure." 

At first the King only proposed to dissolve the lesser Mo- 
nasteries, i. e. such of them whose revenues did not exceed 
L. 200 per annum : and 

"fThis proposal," as Mr. Fuller observes, "found 
little opposition in either of the Houses. Henry VIII. was 
a king, and his necessities were tyrants ; and both [king 
and tyrant] suing together, must not be denied: besides, 
the larger thongs they [of the temporality] cut out of other 
men's leather, the more entire they preserved their own 
hide; which made {lie Parliament concur to ease their own 
purses by laying the load on the lesser houses, which they 
accordingly passed to the crown." "J In Parliament," says 
our Annalist, " were granted tothe King and his heirs all 
religious houses in the realm of England of the value of 
L. 200 and under, with all the lands and goods to them be- 

* Collier's EccL Hist. Vol. IT. B. ii. p. 84. 
f Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book vi. p 310. 
J Stan's Annals, p. 572. 



136 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

longing. The number of the houses then suppressed were 
376, and the value of their lands then thirty-two thousand 
pounds and more by the year The moveable goods (as 
they were sold at Robin Hood's Pennyworths) amounted to 
more than ten thousand pounds. The religious persons that 
were in the said houses were clearly put out; whereof some 
were sent to the other greater houses, and some went abroad 
into the world." 

And thus began the blessed nor~k of Reformation. It was 
built upon the ruins of demolished religious houses; and 
the Act of Parliament that first gave birth to it bears this 
title : 

* An Act consenting the Suppression or Dissolution of 
certain Religious Houses, given to the King^s 
Highness, and to his Heirs for ever.'' 

The Preamble to this Act is too curious and remarkable 
to be overlooked. It sets forth, that ' Forasmuch as ma- 
nifest sin, vicious, carnal, and abominable living, is daily 
used and committed commonly in such little and small Ab- 
bies and Priories, and other Religious Houses of Monks, 
Canons and Nuns, where the congregation of such persons 
is under the number of twelve persons, whereby the gover- 
nors of such Religious Houses, and their Convents, spoil, 
destroy, consume, and utterly waste, as well those 
Churches, Monasteries, Priories, principal houses, farms, 
granges, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, as the orna- 
ments of their Churches, and their goods and chattels, to 
the high displeasure of Almighty God, slander of good Re- 
ligion, and the general infamy of the King's Highness and 
the realm, if redress should not be had thereof. And albeit 
that many continual visitations have been heretofore had, 
by the space of two hundred years and more, for an honest 
and charitable reformation of such unthrifty, carnal, and 
abominable living ; yet nevertheless little or none amend- 
ment is hitherto had ; and by a cursed custom, so grown and 
infested, that a great multitude of religious persons, in such 
small houses, do rather chuse to come abroad in apostasy, 
than to conform themselves to the observation of good reli- 
gion. So that, without such small houses be utterly sup- 
pressed, and the religious persons therein committed to great 
and honourable Monasteries of Religion in this realm, where 
they may be compelled to live religiously for the reforma- 
tion of their lives, there can be no redress or reformation in 
that behalf. In consideration whereof, the King's most 
Royal Majesty, being Supreme Head in earth, under God, 



Supreme Head of the Chureh. 137 

of the Church of England, daily studying and devising the 
increase and advancement and exaltation of true doc- 
trine and virtue in the said Church, to the only honour 
and glory of God, and the total extirpingand destruction of 
vice and sin, having knowlege that the premises be true, 
as well by the complaints of their late visitations, as by 
sundry credible informations. 

' Considering also, that divers and great solemn Monas- 
teries of this realm, wherein, thanks be to God, religion is 
right well kept and observed, be destitute of such full num- 
bers of religious persons as they might and may keep, have 
thought good that a plain declaration should be made of the 
premises, as well to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, as 
to others his loving subjects, the Commons in this present 
Parliament assembled ; whereupon the said Lords and Com- 
mons, by a great deliberation, finally resolved, that it is, and 
shall be, much more to the pleasure of Almighty God, and 
for the honour of this realm, that the possessions of such 
small religious houses now being spent, spoiled, and wasted, 
for the increase and maintenance of sin, should be used and 
converted to better uses ; and the unthrifty religious persons 
so spending the same, be compelled to reform their lives. 
And thereupon most humbly desire the King's Highness 
that it may be enacted, by authority of this present Parlia- 
ment, that his Majesty shall have and enjoy, to him and his 
heirs forever, all and singular such Monasteries, &c. as in 

the printed statute." And such was the tenour of this 

famous Preamble : upon which we beg leave to subjoin 

Mr. Fuller's Observations. 

" * We must not forget," says he, " how in the foresaid 
Preamble, the King fairly claweth the great Monasteries, 
Wherein, says he, religion, thanks be to God, is right well 
kept and observed ; tho' he clawed them soon after in ano- 
ther acceptation. — However, most specious uses were pre- 
tended, That all should be done to the pleasure of Almighty 
God, and for the honour of the realm. And particular care 
is taken in the statute, as it is printed, For the reservation of 
many rents and services, corrodies and pensions to founders, 
donors, and benefactors. They [the purchasers or grantees] 
were also to occupy yearly as much of thedemesnes in tillage as 
the Abbots did, or their farmers under them, within the time of 
twenty years next before this Act, otherwise forfeiting to the 
King^s Highness, for every month so offending, L. 6 : 13 . 4, 
* Fidler's Ch. Hist. Book YI. p. 312. 

T 



138 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

to be recovered to his use in any of his courts of record. 
The arrears whereof, if rigorously exacted, would amount to 
a vast sum from such offenders, whose hospitality was con- 
tracted to a shepherd and his dog; neither relieving those 
that would work by their industry, nor such as could not work 
by their charity. These penalties stood in full force above 
80 years, viz. till the 21st of King James, when by Act of 
Parliament they were repealed. Indeed, such who are ob- 
noxious to Penal Statutes are only innocent by courtesy, and 
may be made guilty at the Prince's pleasure. And tho* 
some statutes may be dormaut, as disused, they are never 
dead till revoked, seeing commonly Princes call on such 
statutes when they themselves are called on by their neces- 
sities. Many of the English gentry knew themselves subject 
to such penalties, when, instead of maintaining tillage, 
they had converted the granges of Abbies into inclosures ; 
and therefore provided for their own safety, when they 
wrought the King into a revocation of those statutes." — Vid. 
Stat. 21 K. J. c.28. 

These observations are sufficiently plain and intelligible. 
There is not a word of obscurity in them, if we except cor- 
7*odies : of which antiquated term we shall give our Reader 
an explication from the same writer. 

"* Corrodies were so called a corrodendo, from eating to- 
gether : for the heirs of the founders had the privilege to 
send a set number of their poor servants to Abbies to diet 
there. Thus many aged servants, (past working, not feed- 
ing, costly to keep, and cruel to cast off,) were sent by their 
masters to the Abbies, where they had plentiful food during 
their lives. But these corrodies, after the dissolution of the 
Abbies, were totally extinct, and no such diet after given, 
when both table and house were overturned.' 7 



§ 3. — Some previous Remarks upon the King^s destructive 
Scheme of A general Dissolution of all the Monasteries in 
England. 

Jt he demolition of the lesser Monasteries having given 
King Henry a taste of monastic gold, it was not long before 
he resolved to glut his voracious appetite with the downfall 
of all the rest, and make a prize of the Church. He had al- 
ready prevailed with himself to pass the Rubicon ! from 
* Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book VI. p. 326. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 189 

whence he continues his desolating- march ; still advancing 
by degrees from less to more, till at last he left not so 
much as a single Monastery (little ov great) standing with- 
in the precincts of his realm of England. 

Since therefore it may be questioned if the British Annals 
can furnish us with a more astonishing emergency, than the 
general Dissolution of the Religious Hauses ; and since this 
was an affair that touched the Regular Clergy in a very 
sensible manner, and occasioned an extraordinary Revolu- 
tion in the Church, we beg leave, and hope to be indulged 
the freedom and liberty to open the scene a little, and en- 
large upon the circumstances. And this indeed we have 
endeavoured to perform, but with no other view than that of 
doingjustice to the memory of the injured sufferers, and of 
exposing, at the same time, the unjustifiableness and insig- 
nificancy of the King's motives for pushing his destructive 
project into execution. But before we enter upon a detail of 
this blessed work, we imagined it might not be amiss (by 
way of introduction) to premise the following rema rks. 

1. When and as often as the reader calls to mind the ma- 
ny stately Monasteries and Churches that were formerly in 
England, and considers the dismal end they were brought 
to ; if he does not, as a Christian, abhor the sacrilege of 
destroying Churches dedicated to the service of Gud, only 
for the vile profit made of the materials, he may at least, as 
a man, reflect on the inhumanity of demolishing such noble 
structures (heretofore, perhaps, the greatest ornaments of 
this island) by the hands of the natives themselves ; and 
that with such stubborn rage and relentless fury, as if the 
work had been done by a victorious army of barbarians. 

*' O lofty towers and sacred piles, 

That once adorn'd these happ3 r isles ! 
Who can recount your overturning, 
Without deep sighs, and bitter mourning?" 

Ward's Ref. c. 1. 

2. Our Monasteries have long since perished, nor have 
w r e, at this day, any footsteps left of the piety of our ances- 
tors, to shew to inquisitive strangers, besides a few tattered 
walls and deplorable ruins ! Nay, the ruins of most of 
them are not only gone to ruin themselves, but their very 
situations are quite lost to us, and remembered no more! 

" Jam seges est phi Trojafuit. /" 

3. The shocking hostilities committed by King Henry 
VIII. against the Church (to make use of Lord Herbert"* 

T 2 



140 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

expression) astonished the Christian world. And well they 
might : for with some, I find, it is even doubted, whether 
the destruction of Christian Churches at this juncture 
was not equal to the sacrilegious ravages of Julian the 
Apostate. 

4. This woful work ivas both projected and carried into 
execution by Commissary- General Cromwel [a name ever 
fatal to the Church!] And he acted, in this business, in 
quality of principal agent; being not only the King's 
Fiear General, but his Scout- Master-General too, as Mr. 
Fuller humorously styles him*. In which capacity he em- 
ployed a world of spies and hungry emissaries, whom he em- 
powered with orders and instructions, to go from one religi- 
ous house to another, in quest of monastic irregularities and 
disorders. These Visitors (for so they were called) exerted 
their power to the utmost stretch, and were far enough 
from partiality in their inquisition. In short, upon their 
return to London, they gave in a most tragical relation of 
the immorality of the monks, &c. And the consequence of 
their informations was this, that Cromwel, by virtue of his 
high commission, and without further proofs, dissolved all 
the Abbies and Monasteries in England. Some few of them 
indeed capitulated, but by far the greater part were taken 
by storm, plundered, and demolished ! This done, Crom- 
wel politicly advised the Kiug to alienate the Abbey Lands 
by sale or deed of gift ; that by this means the ejectment of 
the former possessors might become to all intents and pur- 
poses irrevocable, and repossession impossible. 

" f The writers that lived near that time," says Bishop 
Burnet, "represent the matter very odiously, and say, 
about 10,000 persons were sent to seek for their livings, only 
forty shillings in money and a gown being given to every re- 
ligious man. And it is generally said, and not improbably, 
that the commissioners were as careful to enrich themselves, 
as to increase the King's revenue. r i lie churches and 
cloisters were, for the most part, pulled down, and the lead, 
bells, and other materials, were sold. The people, that 
had been welientertained at the Abbots' tables, were sensi- 
ble of their loss ; for generally as they travelled over the 
country, the -Abbies were their stages, and were houses of 
reception to travellers and strangers. The poor that fed on 

* " Tlie Lord Cromwel, Scout-Master-General in this design, stayed at 
court, whilst his subordinate emissaries sent unto him all their intelligence." 
puller's C,h. Hist B. \i. p.306. 

f hut nci's Hist. Jlef. Yo!. I. B. iii. p. 223. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 141 

their daily alms were deprived of that supply. But to allay 
these discontents, Cromwel advised the King to sell their 
lands at very easy rates, to the gentry in the several 
countries. '1 his drew in the gentry apace, both to be satis- 
fied with what was done, and to assist the crown lor ever in 
defence of these laws ; their own interest bein; 
veu with the rights of the crown. 



§ 4. — King Henry absolves the Religious from any farther 
Obligation or Observance of their Monastic Vows... 
Cromwel is appointed his Majesty's principal Commis- 
sary in the grand Afj air of the General Dissolution. The 
Names of some of his sub-deputies. . . Copy of an Instru- 
ment or Act of Surrender.. .A remarkable Letter from 
Richard Bellasis to Lord Cromwel. 

JL o pave the way to the astonishing Ecclesiastical Revolu- 
tion we are going to recount, the King, in virtue of his 
dispensing power, and, as Head of the Church, took upon 
him to secularize religious persons, and to absolve and free 
them entirely from the servitude of their Monastic Vows ; as 
it is expressed in a statute enacted for that purpose : 
* Where all and singular religious persons, of what order, 
rule, or habit soever, are said to be put at their liberty, from 
the danger, servitude, and condition of their religion and 
profession, whereunto they were professed, and have free 
liberty given them to purchase to themselves and their heirs, 
in fee-simple, fee-tail, &c. manors, lands, &c. in like 
manner as though they, or any of them, had never been 
professed, or enter into any such religion.' — Vid. Stat. 31 
H. 8. c. 13. 

And here we beg leave to observe, first, that it is impos- 
sible to reconcile this absolution- statute with the doctrine 
delivered in the famous Six Articles. For, according to the 
fourth article, the monks, &c. were obliged, upon pain of 
death, to live up to the duties of their religious profession. 
[The second offence, in this matter, being declared felony by 
the law.] Whereas the statute.now before us, at one single 
blow, knocks off the spiritual fetters of a cloistered life, 
and secularizes the religious as effectually, to all intents 
and purposes, us if they, or any of them, had never been, 
professed. These proceedings are truly surprising. But 
our surprise, perhaps, will abate something, when we.-cou-- 



142 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

sider that the conduct of K. Henry WW. after his revolt 
from the See of Rome, was nothing else but a continued se- 
ries of inconsistencies. From that unlucky period, he was 
always doing and undoing he knew not what, nor why. And 
thus was he perplexed thro 7 the remainder of his reign, and 
(what is still worse) was so unfortunate at his death, as to 
leave the nation entangled in religious labyrinths, wherein 
it has been, for many generations, and still is, unhappily, 
bewildered to this day ! 

Secondly, it is to be observed, that the above mentioned 
statute is generally represented as this King's last public 
act in quality of Supreme Ordinary. For after this, we are 
told his Majesty stept behind the scene, and acted only the 
part of a prompter ; resigning to another man the honour of 
being the hero of the tragedy. 

And who should this man be, but the celebrated Thomas 
Cromwelf The destructive scheme was of his own project- 
raent ; and who more fit to be employed in the management 
and execution of it than himself? No wonder then, if, at 
this juncture, and upon so extraordinary an occasion, we 
find him advanced to the dignity of the King's ^Commissary 
General, and surrounded by a crowd of commissioners, or 
sub- delegates : amongst whom the following are particularly 
mentioned by Mr. Fuller, viz. 

" f Richard Layton, Ihomas Leigh, William Petre, 
Doctors of the Law, D. John London, Dean of Walling- 
ford. Of the three first 1 ean sav nothing; but I find the 
latter (tho' employed to correct others) no great saint him- 
self • for afterwards he was publicly convicted of perjury, 
and adjudged to ride with his face to the horse's tail, thro' 
Windsor and Ockingham, with papers about his head de- 
noting his crime; which was done accordingly." 

To these sub-delegates were afterwards added Southwell, 
Gage, Price, Bellasise, Cave, &c. who, with Cromwel at 
their head, invaded the Church with such unexampled fury, 
and carried on the blessed work so vigorously, that, in one 
year's time, ten thousand parochial, abbatial, conventual, 
&c. churches, chapels, oratories, &c. were entirely ruined, 
if there be no exaggeration in this noted verse : 

" Millia dena units Templcrum destruit annus!" 

* The patent for CromweVs Vicar-Generalship styles him Vicemgeren • . 
Vivarium Geveralem, ac Commissariutn Specialem et Principalem. ' [id. )ir. 
Collier's Collection of Records, No. XXX. 

f Fuller's Ch. JJis't. B. \i. p. 317. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 113 

" In the short period of a year, 'tis said, 

Ten thousand Temples in the dust were laid J" 

Vid. Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book vi. p. 30£), and the 
Appendix, No. IX. 

Mr. Fuller is of opinion it was Christchurch Priory, (of 
Canon Regulars) near Aldgate, London, that led the dis- 
mal dance. 

" * As for the manner of dissolving thereof, whereas all 
Abbies afterwards were stormed by violence, (whatever is 
plausibly pretended to the contrary) this only was fairly 
taken by composition. For the Prior thereof was sent for by 
the King, commended for his hospitality, promised prefer- 
ment, as a man worthy of greater dignity. — Whereupon he 
surrendered the same to the King's use. — What might move 
the King to single this Priory out of all the rest, to lead this 
sad. dance, is variously conjectured. Indeed, this was the 
ancientest of all England, of that order, since the Conquest, 
I mean of Canon Regulars, as our Author [Stow] tells us. 
And therefore it was but reasonable that the oldest should go 
first, and that the first born should be first buried. But 
surely no such consideration moved King Henry to this 
choice, who was not so methodical in his deeds of un- 
doing." 

Some kind of method, however, was constantly pursued in 
conducting these acts of desolation, or deeds of undoing, as 
Mr. Fuller further observes. And it was this. 

" f King Henry sent a large instrument" saith Sanders, 
" to every monastery, fairly ingrossed in parchment, en- 
joining them all to subscribe, sign, and seal the same with 
their seal conventual, upon the pain of his displeasure. — 
Most certain it is (which amounts almost to as much ia 
effect) a general intimation was given to all houses, how 
acceptable such an act would be to the King. It was also 
pressed upon the said Monks, Friars, and Nuns, that by 
being obnoxious to the King's anger, this [i. e. the strip- 
ping them of their temporals] might and would be done with- 
out their consent ; so that it was better, rebus sic stantibus, 
to make a virtue of necessity." 

Add to this, that the very instruments the religious were 
obliged, at this juncture, to sign and seal, required their 
throwing themselves upon (what they never found) the 
King's mercy. I shall gratify the reader with a sight of 

* Fuller's Ch. Hist. B.vi. p. 367, f Ibid' p. 319. 



144 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

one of these curiosities in puris naturalibus, and without 
altering the least tittle of its ancient and venerable pseudo- 
graphy. Such is the following 

Copy of an Instrument or Act of Surrender. 

c Whereas yowr Hyghnes being Supreme Hedde immea- 
diately aftre Christ, of his Church in this yowr royalme of 
England, so consequently generall and only Reformator of 
all Religious Persons there, have full authority to correct 
and dyssolve at your Graces pleasure and libertye, all 
Covents and Religious Companyes, abusing the rewles of 
their profession. Wherefore minded hereaftre to fo- 
lowe the same, ^onformyng owr selffes unto the will and 
pleasure of owr Supreme Hedde undre God in Erthe, the 
Kinges Majestye, withe mutuall assent and consent doo sub- 
raytt owr selffes unto the mercye of our said Soveraygne 
Lorde. And with like mutuall assent and consent doo sur- 
render and yelde upe unto the handes of the same, all owr 
saidehowseof in . comenly callyd , 

withe all landes, tenements, gardens, medowes, waters, 
pond-yards, feedings, pastures, comens, rentes or tythes 
aperteyning unto the same; mooste humbly besechyng his 
mooste Noble Grace to disspose of us, and of the same, as 
best schall stonde withe his mooste gracious pleasure. And 
farther, freely to graunt unto every one of us Licens undre 
Writyng and Sceall, to chaunge our Abites into seculer 
fasshion, and to receive such maner of livyngs as other 
Seculer Priestes coinenly be preferryd unto. And we- all 
faythfully schall pray unto Almighty God, long to preserve 
his mooste Noble Grace wythe encrease of moche felicitie 
and honor. 

( And in witnes of all and singuler the pre- 
misses, we have put owr Covent Sceall, 
this day of .' 

N. B. All Abbots, Priors, and other heads of Religious 
Houses, (and all their subjects) were expressly and peremp- 
torily injoined to sign, seal, and subscribe their names to 
this, or some such like instrument. 

Thus the Religious being compelled to surrender their 
Properties without further ceremony, became an easy 
prey to the greedy Visitors; whereof such as were 
vested with extensive commissions and a discretionary 



Supreme Head of tJie Church, 145 

power* j proceeded directly to ejectment. And in order to 
preclude the return of the religious inhabitants for the fu- 
ture, their houses (after having" been severely ransacked 
and plundered) were utterly ruined and defaced. And this 
woful sentence (pronounced by the Commissary General) 
was executed with such relentless rigour, ana in so barba- 
rous a manner, that not so much as the dead walls were 
spared. In short, the dreadful havoc and the sacrilegious 
depredations committed in and about these ancient monu- 
ments of devotion, (as my Lord Herbert styles them) by 
Cromwel and his fellow-plunderers, are, we think, too 
shocking to be repeated ; and, for this reason, we forbear 
the recital of them, 

However, we hope our Reader will not be displeased with 
one instance out of the many that might be produced, if the 
vile conduct of these devouring locusts (the visitors we 
mean) in the person of Hie hard Bellas ise ; who, it seems, 
had been appointed by Cromwel to destroy Jervaux Abbey 
and Burlington Priory [of Can. Bee/.] : that from the be- 
haviour of this incendiary alone, he may learn how signifi- 
cantly the rest of the visitors were employed. 

*' ...., Crimine ab uno, 

JDisce omnes" 

And thus does our pious sub-deputy give an account to 
.Lord Cromwel in what manner he had performed part of his 
commission, and how he intended to execute the rest, in a 
remarkable letter to his Lordship as follows, 

" Plesyth your good Lordshipp to be advertysed, I have 
taken down all the leade of Jervast, and made itt in pecys 
of half foders, which leade amountyth to the number of J8 
score and five foders, with thirty and five foders that were 
there before ; and the said lead« cannot be conveit nor ca- 
ryed untillthe next sombre, for the ways in this contre are 
so foull and deep, that no caryage can pass in wyntre ; and 
as concernyng the rasing and taking downe of t!*e house, 
iff itt be your Lordshipp's pleasure, 1 am mindeth to lettiit 
stand to the spring of the year, by reason of the days are 
now so short, itt would be double charges to do itt now ; 
and as concernyng the selling of the bells, I cannot sell 

f The generality of the Visitors were furnished with a plenitude of power, to 
visit, deprive, or suspend .Archbishops, Bishops, and the rest of the inferior 
Clergy. And with regard to the Monasteries, they had an absolute and illimiled 
authority.— See a full account of these }> on- i>r? in Mr. Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. 
3. ii. p. I ()5, and his Colic. , ion - \ rdte, >n o. X XX. 

u 



146 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

them above 15 shillings the hundretb, wherein I wolde 
gladly know your Lordshipp's pleasure, whether I shall 
sell them after that price, or send them up to London ; and 
iff they be sent up, surely the caryage will be costly from 
that place to the water; and as for Brydlington, I have 
doyn nothing there, but spareth itt to March, because the 
days are now so short ; and from such time as I begyn, I 
trust shortly to dispatche itt, after such fashion, that when 
all is finished, I trust your Lordshipp shall think that I have 
been no evil howsbound in all such things as your Lord- 
shipp appointed me to do ; and thus the Holy Ghost ever 
preserve your Lordshipp in honour. 

" At York this 14 day of Nov. by your most 
bounded headman, 

" Richard Bellycys." 
Thus fell the great solemn Monasteries of this realm, to 
the number of 645 ! and with the demolition of religious 
houses, churches, &e. ended (to his immortal honour) 
King Henry's Reformation I For, as the noble Author of 
this Prince's Life observes, Henry promoted no other Re- 
formation but only that which would turn the penny and 
increase the exchequer. 



§ 5. — Of the six Bishoprics erected by K. Henry VIII. 
. . The Erection is confirmed by Cardinal Pole in the 
Reign of Queen Mary. . . The Changes at Westminster. 

And now our great Monarch seemed to be placed in the 
happy circumstances of the famous King of Lydia... Riches, 
with a full spring tide, came rolling in upon him from every 
quarter! insomuch that he soon found himself obliged to 
institute a new court, with proper officers, to collect and 
manage to advantage his extraordinary royal intrado. It was 
called The Court of Augmentation. But it proved to be an 
unprosperous establishment; for, in seven years time, it 
came to nothing \ 

However, out of this prodigious mass of wealth, which 
must needs accrue from the seizure of all the houses, lands, 
and revenues (besides the jetvels, plate, and ready money, 
of all the Religious Orders in England, Henry, with much, 
ado, was persuaded to restore some inconsiderable scraps 
to the Church. And with this view, he is said to have set 
apart eight thousand pounds per annum, to support the six 



Supreme Head of the Church. 147 

Bishoprics which he afterwards erected at Oxford, Peterbo- 
rough, Bristol, Gloucester, Chester, and Westminster. 
The five first remain Episcopal Sees to this day. But of 
the last place, as a Bishop's seat, we have but little to say, 
further than that it was soon up, and soon down again ; 
once a Bishopric, now a Deanry. That D. Thirlby (or 
Thurlby) was both the first and the last Bishop of West- 
minster ; and that, in the next reign, it was dissolved by 
the King's Letters Patents, as D. Hvylin informs us. 

And here, perhaps, it may not be improper to observe, 
that the erection of the above-mentioned Episcopal Sees, 
with some other alterations of a similar nature, that had bean 
made by King Henry VIII. towards the conclusion of his 
reign, were first dispensed with, to remain in statu quo, 
and afterwards confirmed by Cardinal Pole in the reign of 
Queen Mary : yet so, that the new erected Cathedrals, 
Hospitals, &c. are declared, in the Cardinal's Bull of 
Dispensation, to have obtained no sanction or validity from 
their first irregular establishment by the King; and that 
therefore it was thought necessary they should be grounded 
upon and supported by Apostolical Authority ; in virtue 
whereof, the above changes and alterations are said to be 
and to remain firm and inviolable for ever, — See as much 
of this Bull as makes for our purpose, in the Appendix, 
No. X. 

But of all the changes that happened at this time to par- 
ticular churches, those that befel Westminster Abbey 
Church are, perhaps, none of the least remarkable : and, as 
such, we beg leave to lay them before the Reader in D. 
JEfegltn's own words. 

"*The Abbey of Westminster," says he, "had been 
founded for a Convent of Benedictin Monks by King Ed- 
ward the Confessor, valued, at the suppression by King 
Henry the Eighth, at the yearly sum of 3977 pounds in good, 
old rents, anno 1539. At which time, having taken to him- 
self the best and greatest part of the lands thereof, he found- 
ed with the rest a Collegiate Church, consisting of a Dean, 
and Secular Canons ; and afterwards erected it into an 
Episcopal See." 

But its too near vicinity to the court, exposed it to the 
depredations of the nobility, by whom it was so unmerciful- 
fuly fleeced, that Bp. Thirlby was hard put to it to sup- 

f Heylin's Hist.Ref. p. 56. 

U2 



148 The Transactions ofK. Henry VIII. as 

port his dignity with the scanty allowance that was left 
him. Bat fortune did not always frown upon him. For in 
K. Edward's reign he had the good luck to be translated to 
Norwich. And as he never had a predecessor, so never was 
there any successor (after his translation) appointed in his 
room, in the See of Westminster. 

" f For in the sixth year of King Edward, the Bishoprick 
of Westminster was dissolved by the King's Letters Pa- 
tents ; by which the county of Middlesex, which had before 
been laid unto it, was restored unto the See of London.— 
Most of the lands of Westminster were invaded by the great 
men of the court, the rest laid out for the reparation of S. 
Paul's, pared almost to the very quick in those days of 
rapine. From hence came that significant by-word of 

robbing Peter to pay Paul." In short : "J In the space 

of twenty years it had been changed from an Abbey to a 
Deanry, from a Deanry to a See Episcopal ; and from that 
reduced again to a Deanry ; and lastly by Queen Elizabeth 
(having first pleased herself in the choice of some of the best 
Jands belonging to it) it was to be called The Collegiate 
Church of St. Peter's, in Westminster." 

Much in the same manner does Mr. Fuller describe the 
changes at Westminster, only with this difference, that he 
allows a longer period of time (by ten years) for the com- 
pletion of them. And thus (in his own most remarkable 
style) does he entertain his reader upon this subject. 

" § The bells of S. Peter, in Westminster, had strangely 
rung the changes these last thirty years. Within which 
time, first, it was a stately and rich convent of Benedictin 
Monks. Secondly, it was made a Collegiate Church of a 
Dean and Prebendaries by King Henry VIII. Thirdly, by 
the same King it was made an Episcopal See, and Thomas 
Thirlby the first and last Bishop thereof. Fourthly, Queen 
Mary reseated the Abbot and Monks in the possession 
thereof, who were outed after her death. Lastly, Q. Eliza- 
beth converted it again into a Collegiate Church." 

f Heylin's Hist.Ref. p. 121. + Idem* p. 136. 

§ Fuller's Ch. Hist. Bookix. p 70; 



Supreme Head of the Church. 149 



§ 6.—»Sir William Dugdale's Account of the Suppression of 
our English Monasteries. 

JL he following narrative is taken out of Sir William Dug- 
dale's celebrated History of Warwickshire (p. 801), where, 
after having mentioned the particular suppression of Poles- 
worth nunnery, he takes an occasion to present his reader 
with a short view of the vile artifices and scandalous methods 
that were pursued by the King's Agents or Commissioners 
in carrying on the general Dissolution of all the Abbies, Mo- 
nasteries, Nunneries, &c. in the kingdom. 

u 1 find it recorded by the Commissioners, that were em- 
ployed to take surrender of the Monasteries in this shire, 
{an. 29. Hen. VIII.) that after strict scrutiny, not only by 
the fame of the country, but by examination of several 
persons, they found, these Nuns vertuous and religious wo- 
men, of good conversation. Nevertheless, it was not th« 
strict and regular lives, or any thing that might be said in 
behalf of the Monasteries, that could prevent their ruin then 
approaching. So great an aim had the King to make him- 
self thereby glorious, and many others no less hopes to be 
enriched in a considerable manner. But to the end that 
such a change should not overwhelm those that might be 
active therein, in regard the people every where had no 
small esteem of these houses, for their devout and daily ex- 
ercises in prayer, alms-deeds, hospitality, and the like, 
whereby not only the souls of their deceas'd ancestors had 
much benefit, as was then thought, but themselves, the poor, 
as also strangers and pilgrims constant advantage ; there 
wanted not the most subtle contrivances to effect this stupen- 
dous wo7*h, that, I think, any age has beheld; whereof it 
will not be thought improper, I presume, to take here a 
short view. 

" In order therefore to it, was that which Cardinal Wol- 
sey had done for the founding of his Colleges in Oxford and 
Ipswich made a precedent, viz. the dissolving of above 
thirty Religious Houses, most very small ones, by the li- 
cence of the King and Pope Clement VII. And that it 
might be the better carried on, Mr. Thomas Cromwell, who 
had been an old servant to the Cardinal, and not a little ac- 
tive in that, was the chief person pitch'd upon to assist 
therein. For I look upon this business as not originally de- 
signed by the King, but by some principal ambitious men of 
that age, who projected to themselves all worldly advantages 



i 50 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

imaginable, thro'' the deluge of wealth which was like to 
flow amongst tfiem by this hideous storm. 

i( First, therefore, having- insinuated to the King matter 
of profit and honour, (viz. profit, by so vast an enlarge- 
ment of his revenue, and honour, in being able to maintain 
mighty armies to recover his right in France, as also to 
strengthen himself against the Pope, whose Supremacy he 
himself had abolished, and to make the firmer alliance with 
such Princes as had done the like) did they procure Cran- 
m,ei's advancement to the See of Canterbury, and more of 
the Protestant Clergy (as my authority terms them) to other 
Bishopricks and high places ; to the end that the rest should 
not be able, in a full council, to carry any thing against 
their design ; sending out preachers to persuade the people 
to stand fast to the King, without fear of the Pope's curse, 
or his dissolving their allegiance. 

" Next, that it might be more plausibly carried on, care 
was taken so to represent the lives of Monks, Nuns, Canons, 
8$c. to the world, as that the less regret might be made at 
their ruin. To which purpose, Thomas Cromwell being 
constituted General Visitor, employed sundry persons, who 
noted their parts therein accordingly, viz. Richard Laytou, 
Thomas Leigh, and William Petre, Doctors of the Law, and 
J). John London, Dean of Wallingford, and others. By 
which they were to inquire into the government and behavi- 
our of the Religious of both sexes. Which Commissioners, 
the better to manage their design, gate encouragement 
to the Monks not only to accuse their Governors, but to 
inform against each other ; compelling them also to produce 
the charters and evidences of their lands, as also their plate 
and money, and to give an inventory thereof. And hereunto 
they added certain injunctions from the King, containing 
most severe and strict rules ; by means whereof, divers be- 
ing found obnoxious to censure, were expelled, and many, 
discerning themselves not able to live free from exception 
and advantage that might be taken against them 5 desired to 
leave their habit. 

" Having by these Visitors thus searched into their lives, 
{rvbkh by a black booh, containing a world of enormities, 
\vere represented in no small measure scandalous, to the end 
that the people might be better satisfied with their proceed- 
ings), it was thought convenient to suggest that the lesser 
hpusqf, for want of good government, were chiefly guilty 
epe crjpoe* that were laid to their charge: and so they 
did, as appears from the Preamble of that Act for their dis- 



Supreme Head of the Church . 151 

solution, made in the 27th of Henri/ VIII. which Parliament, 
(consisting in the most part of such members as were pack'd 
for the purpose, thro' private interest, as is evident 
from divers original letters of that time, many of the nobility, 
for the like respects also, favouring the design) assented to 
the suppressing* of all such houses as had been certified of 
less value than two hundred pounds per annum, and giv- 
ing them, with their lands and revenues, to the King. Yet 
so, as not only the religious persons therein should be com- 
mitted to the great and honourable Monasteries of the realm, 
where they might be compelled to live religiously for the re- 
formation of their lives, wherein, thanks be to God, Religion 
is well kept and, observed, (they are the words of the Act) 
but that the possessions belonging to such houses should be 
converted to better uses, to the pleasure of God Almighty, 
and the honour and profit of the realm. 

C( But how well the tenour thereof was pursued w r e shall 
see ; these specious pretences being made use of for no 
other purpose, than by opening this gap to make way for the 
ruin of the greater houses, wherein it is by the said Act ac- 
knowledged that Religion was so well observed. For no 
sooner were the Monks, &c. turn'd out, and their houses 
demolished, (that being the first thought requisite, lest 
some accidental change might conduce to their restitution) 
but care was taken to prefer such persons to the superiority 
in government, upon any vacancy in these greater houses, as 
might be instrumental to their surrender, by tampering with 
the Convent to that purpose ; whose activeness was such, 
that within the space of two years several Convents were 
wrought upon, and Commissioners sent down, to take them 
at their hands to the King's use ; of which number I find, 
that besides the before specified Doctors of the Law, there 
were 34 Commissioners. 

" The truth is, that there was no omission of any endea- 
vours that can well be imagined to accomplish these surren- 
ders. For so subtilly did the Commissioners act their part, 
as that after earnest solicit a Hon with the Abbots, and find- 
ing them backward, they first tempted them with pensions 
during life, whereby they found some forward enough to 
promote the work, as the Abbot of Hales, in Gloucestershire, 
was, who had high commendation for it from the Commis- 
sioners, as their letters to the Visitor General do manifest. 
So likewise had the Abbot of Ramsey and the Prior of Ely. 
Nay, some were so obsequious, that after they had wrought 
t|ie surrender of their own houses, they were employed, as 






152 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

commissioners to persuade others ; as the Prior of Guis- 
born, in Yorkshire, for one. Neither were the courtiers 
unactive in driving on this work ; as may he seen by the 
Lord Chancellor Audley's employing a special agent to treat 
wiVi the Abbot of Athelney, and to offer him a hundred 
marks per annum pension, in case he would surrender ; 
which the Abbot refused, insisting upon a greater sum : and 
the personal endeavours he used with the Abbot of Osit he, in 
Essex, as appears by his letter to the Visitor General, 
wherein it is signified, that he had with great solicitation 
prevailed with the said Abbot ; but withal insinuating his 
desire that, his place of Lord Chancellor being very charge- 
able, the King might be moved for an addition of some more 
profitable offices unto him. Nay, I find that this great 
man, the Lord Chancellor, hunting eagerly after the Abbey 
oiWalden, in Essex, (out of the ruins whereof, afterwards 
that magnificent fabrick called by the name of Audley Inn, 
was built) as an argument to obtain it, did, besides the ex- 
tenuation of its worth, alledge, that he had in this world 
sustained great damage and infamy in serving the King, 
which the grant of that should recompense. 

(C Amongst the particular arguments which were made 
use of by those that were averse to surrender, I find that 
the Abbot of Fever sham alledged the antiquity of their Mo- 
nastery's foundation, viz. by King Stephen, whose body, 
with the bodies of the Queen and Prince, lay there interred, 
and for whom were used continual suffrages and commen- 
dations by prayers. Yet it would not avail; for they were 
resolved to effect what they had begun by one means or 
other: insomuch that they procured the Bishop of London 
to come to the Nuns of Sian with their Confessor, to solicit 
them thereunto. Who after many persuasions, took it up- 
on their consciences that they ought to submit unto the 
King's pleasure therein, by God's law, But what could 
not be effected by such arguments and fair promises, (which 
were not wanting nor unfulfilled, as appears by the large 
pensions that some active Monks and Canons had in com- 
parison of others, even to a fifth or six-fold proportion more 
than ordinary) was by terror and severe dealing brought to 
pass. For under pretence of dilapidation in the buildings, 
or negligent administration of their offices, as also for break- 
ing the King's injunctions, they deprived some Abbots, and 
then put others that were more pliant in their room. 

u From others they took their Convent Seals, to the end 
they might not, by making leases or sale of their jewels, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 153 

raise money either for supply of their present wants, or 
payment of their debts, and so be necessitated to surrender. 
Nay to some, as in particular to the Canons of Leicester, ttie 
Commissioners threatened, that they would charge them 

with adultery and b unless they would submit. And 

D. London told the Nuns of Godstow, that because he found 
them obstinate, he would dissolve the house by virtue of the 
King's Commission, in spite of their teeth. And yet all was 
so managed, that the King' was solicited to accept of them, 
not being willing to fiave it thought they were by terror 
moved thereunto ; and special notice was taken of such as 
gave out that their surrender was by compulsion. 

" Which courses (after so many that through underhand 
corruption led the way) brought on others apace ; as ap- 
pears by their dates, Which I have observed from the very 
instruments themselves ; insomuch that the rest stood 
amazed, not knowing which way to turn themselves. Some 
therefore, thought fit to try whether money might not save 
their houses from this dismal fate, so near at hand. The 
Abbot of Peterborough offered 2500 marks to the King, and 
three hundred Pounds to the Visitor General. Others with 
great constancy refused to be accessary in violating the do- 
nations of their pious founders. But these, as they were not 
many, so did they taste of no little severity. I?or touching 
the Abbot of Fountaines, in Yorkshire, 1 find, that being 
charged by the Commissioners for taking into his private 
hands some jewels belonging to the Monastery, which they 
called theft and sacrilege, they pronounced him perjured, 
and so deposing him, extorted a private resignation. And 
it appears that the monks of the Charter-house, in the suburbs 
of London, were committed to Newgate, where, with hard 
and barbarous usage, five of them died, and five more 
lay at the point of death, as the Commissioners signified ; but 
Withal alledged, that the suppression of that house, being 
of so strict a rule, would occasion great scandal to their 
doings, forasmuch as it stood in the face of the world, infi- 
nite concourse coming from all parts to that populous city ; 
and therefore desired it might be altered to some other use. 
And lastly, I find that, under the like pretence of robbing the 
Church, wherewith the aforesaid Abbot of Fountaines was 
charged, the Abbot of' Glastonbury, with two of his Monks, 
being condemned to death, was drawn from Wells upon a 
hurdle, then hang'd upon the hill called Tor, near Glaston- 
bury, his head set upon the Abbey gate, and his quarters 
disposed of to Wells, Bath, Ilchester, and Bridgwater. 

X 



154 The Transaction? of K. Henry VIII. as 

Nor did the Abbots of Colchester and Reading fare much 
better, as they that will consult the story of that time may 
see. And for farther terror to the rest, some Priors and 
other Ecclesiastical Persons, who spoke against the King's 
Supremacy, a thing then somewhat uncouth, were con- 
demned as traitors, and executed. 

" And now, when all this was effected, to the end it 
might not be thought that these things were done with 
a high hand, the King having protested that he would 
suppress none without the consent of his Parliament, (it be- 
ing called April 28, I5&9, to confirm these surrenders so 
made) there wanted not plausible insinuations to both 
Houses, for drawing on their consent with all smoothness 
thereunto : the nobility being promised large shares in the 
spoil ; either by free gift from the King, easy purchases, or 
most advantageous exchanges; and many of the active 
gentry, advancement to honours, with increase of their 
estates : all which we see happened to them accordingly. 
And the better to satisfy the vulgar, it was represented to 
them, that by this deluge of wealth the kingdom would be 
strengthened with an army of forty thousand men, and that 
for the future they should never be charged with subsidies T 
fifteenths, loans, or common aids. By which means, the 
Parliament ratifying the above surrenders, the work became 
compleated. For the more firm settling whereof, a sudden 
course was taken, to pull down and destroy the buildings ;. 
as had been done before upon the dissolution of the smaller 
houses, whereof I have touched. Next, to distribute a 
great portion of their lands amongst the Nobility and 
Gentry, as had been projected ; which was done according- 
ly : the Visitor General having told the King, that the 
more had interest in them, the more they would be irrevo- 
cable. 

" And lest any domestick stirs, by reason of this great 
and strange alteration, should arise, rumours were spread 
abroad, that Cardinal Pole laboured with divers Princes to 
procure forces against this realm, and that an invasion was 
threatened, which seemed the more credible, because the 
truce between the Emperor and the French King was gene- 
rally known, neither of them wanting a pretence to invade 
England. And this was also seconded by a sudden journey 
of the King to the sea coasts, unto divers parts whereof he 
had sent sundry expert persons, to visit the coasts and 
places of danger, who failed not, for their discharge upon 
all events, to affirm the peril in each place to be so great, 



Supreme Head of the Ch urch . 155 

ttS one would have thought every place needed a fortifica- 
tion. All which preparations being made against a danger 
believed imminent, seemed to excuse the suppression of the 
Abbies, as that the people, willing to save their own purses, 
began to suffer it easily ; especially when they saw order 
taken for building such forts. 

" But let us look a little upon the success, wherein I 
find that the Visitor General, the grand actor in this tragical 
business, having contracted upon himself such an odium 
from the nobility, by reason of his low birth, (though not 
long before made Knight of the Garter, Earl of Essex, and 
Lord High Chancellor of England) as also from the Ca- 
tholics, for having thus operated in the dissolution of 
Abbies, that (before the end of the above-said Parliament, 
wherein that was ratified which he had with so much indus- 
try brought to pass) tlte King not having any more use of 
him, gave way to his enemies* accusations. Whereupon be- 
ing arrested by the Duke of Norfolk at the council table 
when he least dreamed of it, and committed to the Tower, he 
was condemned by the same Parliament for heresy and 
treason, unheard and little pitied ; and on the 28th oiJuly, 
viz. four days after the Parliament was dissolved, had his 
head cut off* on Tower-hill. 

(l And as for the fruit which the people reaped from all 
their hopes, built upon these specious pretences which I 
have mentioned, it was very little. For it is plain, that sub- 
sidies from the clergy, and fifteenths of laymen's goods, 
were soon after exacted ; and that in Edward the Sixth's 
time, the Commons were constrained to supply the King's 
wants by a new invention, viz. sheep, cloaths, goods, 
debts, &c. for three years. Which tax grew so heavy, 
that the year following they prayed the King for a mitiga- 
tion thereof. Nor is it a little observable, that whilst the 
Monasteries stood, there was no Act for the Belief of the 
Poor. So amply did those houses give succour to them that 
were in want. Whereas in the next age, vjz. 39 Elizab. 
no less than eleven Bills were brought into the House of 
Commons for that purpose." 

Hence we may remark, that the plundering of churches 
proved, in the end, as fatal to Thomas Cromwel, as the 
gold of Thoulouse was inauspicious to Cepio Serdlius, the 
Roman Consul. 

As for the King, he enjoyed but a short temporary advan- 
tage from the downfal of Abbies, &c. and the seizure of 
consecrated treasures. For, having prodigally squandered 



156 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

away [within less than seven years after the general Sup* 
pression, as D. Heylin informs us) that deluge of wealthy 
and those immense riches which he had purloined from the 
Church, and his wants still increasing", he soon found him- 
self necessitated to extend his rapacity to Bishoprics, 
Chanteries, Free Chapels, fyc. of which more in the next 
section. 



§ 7. — King Henry makes a second Irruption into the Patri- 
mony of the Church.. . He puts the Bishoprics under Con- 
tribution, and, procures a Qrant of the Chanteries, Free 
Chapels, 6)C 

"tJMLosT true it is, that it w r as something of the latest be- 
fore he cast his eye on the lands of Bishopricks ; tho* there 
were some that thought the time long till they fell upon 
them. Concerning which there goes a story, that after the 
court-harpies had devoured the greatest part of the spoil 
which came by the Suppression of Abbies, they began to 
seek some other way to satiate that greedy appetite, which 
the division of the former booty had left unsatisfied : and for 
the satisfying whereof they found not any thing so necessa- 
ry as the Bishop's lands. 

" This to effect, Sir Thomas Seymour is employed as the 
fittest man, being in favour with the King 1 , and brother to 
Queen Jane, his most beloved and best wife ; and having 
opportunity of access to him, as being one of his privy 
chamber. And he not having any good affection to Arch- 
bishop Cranmer, desired that the experiment should be 
tried upon him. 

" And therefore took his time to inform the King, that 
my Lord of Canterbury did nothing but fell his woods, 
letting long leases for great fines, and making havock of the 
royalties of his Archbishoprick, to raise thereby a fortune to 
his wife and children. Withal he acquainted the King, 
that the Archbishop kept no hospitality in respect of such a 
large revenue; and that, in the opinion of many wise men, 
it was more convenient for the Bishops to have a convenient 
yearly stipend out. of the Exchequer, than to be so much en- 
cumbered with temporal royalties, being so great a hin- 

f Heylin's Hist. Kef. p. 17. 



Supreme Head of the Church, 157 

drance to their studies and pastoral charge ; and that the 
lands and royalties being taken to his Majesty's use, would 
afford him (besides the said stipends) a great yearly re- 
venue. 

" The King considering of it, could not think fit that such 
a laudable proposition as taking to himself the lands of the 
Bishops should be made in vain ; only he was resolved to 
prey farther off, and not to fall upon the spoil too near the 
court, for fear of having more partakers in the booty than 
might stand with his profit. 

li And to this end he deals with Holgate, preferred not 
long before from Landaff to the See of York ; from whom he 
takes, at onetime, no fewer than seventy Manors of good old 
rents, giving him in exchange to the like yearly value, cer- 
tain impropriations, pensions, tithes, and portions of tithes, 
(but all of an extended rent) which had accrued to the Crown 
by the fall of Abbies : which lands he laid, by Act of Parlia- 
ment, to the Duchy of Lancaster. For which see Stat. 37. 
11. 8. c.16. 

" He dismembered also, by these Acts, certain Manors 
from the See of London, and others in like manner from the 
See of Canterbury ; but not without some reasonable com- 
pensation for them. 

" And altho', by reason of his death, which followed 
within a short time after, there was no further alienation 
made, in this time, of the Church's patrimony, yet having 
opened such a gap, and discovered this secret, that the 
Sacred Patrimony might be alienated with so little trouble, 
the courtiers of King Edward's time would not be kept from 
breaking violently into it, and making up their own fortune 
in the spoil of Bishopricks. So impossible a thing it is for the 
ill example of great Princes, not to find followers in all 
ages ; especially where profit or preferment may be further- 
ed by it." 

But the King, it seems, was not satisfied with dismember- 
ing Bishopries only. They had, indeed, furnished him 
with a fresh supply of rhino, but nothing equal to his prodi- 
gious expences. And besides, there were some pious founda- 
tions which had hitherto escaped his rapacious eyes and 
hands. These were the Chanteries, Free Chapels, [see the 
Appendix, No. XL] Hospitals, and Colleges : of all which 
he had the address to procure a grant from his obsequious 
Parliament, though he lived not long enough to see it exe- 
cuted. 



158 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

"*King Henry VIIl.'s expences, like sandy ground, 
suddenly suck'd up the large showers of Abbey-lands, and 
little sign or show was seen thereof : yea, such the parching" 
thirst of his pressing occasions, that still they called aloud 
for more moisture. For whose satisfaction the Parliament, 
in the 38th year of his reign, put the lands of all Colleges, 
Chanteries, and Free Chapels, into his hands. This made 
three meals, or (if you will) one meal of three courses, on 
Abbey lands. For the lesser Monasteries were granted in 
1535. The greater Monasteries in 1538. And the Col- 
leges, Chanteries, and Free Chapels, in 1545. 

"f How much the yearly revenue of all these Chanteries, 
Free Chapels, and Colleges, amounted to, God knows ; 
for the King knew as little as some in our age. Indeed, 
some of his officers knew, but would not know, as wilfully 
concealing their knowledge therein. Yea, some of these 
Chanteries may be said, in a double sense, to be suppressed ; 
as not only put down, but also Concealed, never coming into 
the Exchequer, being silently pocketed by private (but 
potent) persons. True it is, the courtiers were more rapa- 
cious to catch, and voracious to swallow these Chanteries 
than Abby-lands. For, at the first, many were scrupulous 
in mind, or modest in manners, doubting the acceptance of 
Abby-lands, tho' offered unto them, till profit and custom 
(two able Confessors) had, by degrees, satisfied their con- 
sciences, and absolved them from any fault therein. Now, 
all scruples remov'd, Chantery lands went down without any 
regret. Yea, such who mannerly expected till the King 
carved for them out of Abbey-lands, scrambled for them- 
selves out of Chantery-revenues, as knowing this was the 
last dish of the last course; and after Chanteries, as after 
Cheese, nothing can be expected, As for those who fairly 
purchased them of the King, they had such good bargains 
therein, that thereby all enriched, and some ennobled both 
themselves and posterity. 

* Fulltt's Ch. Hist. B, \i. p. 350, f Bid. p. 354, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 159 



§ 8. — Mr. Collier's judicious Remarks upon the present 
Subject, under the following Heads...!. He gives us his 
Thoughts upon the General Dissolution of Abbies, %c... 
II. He plainly shows that the Abbies were serviceable to 
the Public upon several Accounts.. .III. He rescues and 
defends the Monks from the Imputation o/* Ignorance. 

"f JL he ruin of the Monasteries giving a new face to this 
kingdom, and appearing so very extraordinary, it may not 
be improper to make a few remarks upon so great an al- 
teration. 

I. " It is pretty plain the lives of the Religious were not 
so irregular as some authors represent them. But granting 
this charge had been true, it would have been no sufficient 
reason to have seiz'd their estates. If insobriety and misbe- 
haviour were sufficient grounds for forfeiture ; if ill living, 
and not answering the ends of an estate, would justify the 
dispossessing the owner, property would be very precari- 
ous, and the English tenures slenderly guarded. 

" For, if we consider the matter closely, all Christians are 
bound to strict living, to discipline, to large distributions of 
charity, little less than the Monks. They are false to the 
engagements of baptism, if they manage otherwise. The 
Monastic Institutions were principally designed to revive 
the piety of the ancient Christians, and bring up practice to 
the rule of the gospel. 

" Farther, if degeneracy and misbehaviour were the 
grand motive for dissolution, why were they not put under 
a better management ? Why had they not some tryal for 
reformation? If unnecessary expence, and omission of 
kindness to the poor ; if luxury and licence are good reasons 
to change the owner, and determiue the estate ; if this will 
hold, we shall have strange transferring of titles. At this 
rate, 'tis to be fear'd, some people would have a very slender 
claim to their Abby-lands. 

" But if immorality, or mispending of revenue, is no suf- 
ficient reason for defeating of titles, why did the Monaste- 
ries suffer ? Why must the Church be dispossessed upon 
this score ? Why were the Monasteries which were un- 
exceptionable in their management, which were charita- 
ble to the poor, and hospitable to the rich ; why were 

f Collier's Ercl Hist> Vol. II. B. iii. p. 161. 



S66 The Transactions of K. Henry Fill, as 

these involved in the common fate, and condemned to dis- 
solution with the rest ? ' * By the evidence of records* 
there were more righteous Monasteries in England, than 
righteous men in Sodom.'' — However, this over-ballauce 
of merit could not divert the calamity, nor preserve them 
from ruin. Thus we see how much the mercies of God are 
greater than those of men! Justice below is sometimes blind 
upon mysterious motivesj strikes without distinction, and 
sweeps away the innocent with the guilty ! 

" If the Monks were tied to greater strictness than others, 
are not the owners of Abby-lands bound to take their estates 
with the conditions annexed ? I do not say they are bound 
to the whole compass of their institution ; their tonsure or 
habit, their celibacy or retirement, can't reasonably be ex- 
pected : hut are they not obliged to the more significant 
duties for which these houses were first endowed? Are not 
these Secular Grantees bound to the most substantial part 
of the founder's will ? Are they not under the tie of being 
more frequent in their devotions, more guarded in their 
conduct than other people? That the Parliament in King 
Henry VIII.'s time, was somewhat of this opinion, is plain : 
why else did they oblige the 'proprietors of Abby-lands to 
extraordinary degrees of hospitality ? — Vid. Stat. 27. H. 8. 
c. 28. 

" If strict living, sober hospitality, and serviceableness 
to the poor, are accounted incumbrances, the Abby-lands 
seem chargeable with them. For the Princes, Charters, 
and Jets of Parliament, may convey a legal title ; yet, that 
they can destroy the force of Consecrations, dispense with 
the meaning of Founders, and defeat the design of the Ori- 
ginal Grant, is farther than I can discover. Jets of Par* 
liament have, without question, authority to over-rule 
claims and extinguish titles, and govern the courts of jus- 
tice. But are not some things above the reach of the Le- 
gislature ? Can a Statute unconsecrate a Church, enact 
Sunday no holy day, or sacrilege no sin ? Is not God Al- 
mighty capable of property ? If we must answer in the 
affirmative, how can an estate dedicated to his service, and 
vested in him, be taken away without his consent ? Whicb 
way can the intention of the donor, and the main design of 
the conveyance, be overlook'd and defeated ? Regularity 
and largeness of mind, therefore, are the lea> tint can be 

* See an instance of Mr. D...d's disingenuity } in aflagr- : i g _-•*••- 

Author, Appen. No. XTI. 



I 



Supreme Head of the Church. 161 

expected from the Abby-proprietors. These, it may be, 
are the lowest requisites to make such alienations inoffensive 
to them. 

" And therefore, when those who enjoy the religious 
estates, rack their tenants, or overlook the poor : when 
they exhaust themselves in figure and licenciousness : when 
any thing of this happens, the intention of the pious settle- 
ment is lamentably disappointed : the misapplication is 
doubly criminal : and without reformation, it is much to be 
feared, the curse of the founders will fall upon them. To be 
better enabled to ridicule virtue, to browbeat religion, or 
set a fashion in vice, is wide of the design of a Religious 
Foundation. Those, therefore, who are possessed of these 
lands, should be particularly careful in these matters. 

" It is said, the Monasteries, Colleges, &c. were of a 
Royal Foundation ; and therefore the taking them away was 
only a resumption of grants from the Crown. To this it 
will be answered, the assertion is wide of matter of fact ; 
and that many of the Abbies, &c. were founded by Bi- 
shops and temporal Lords, and some by subjects of lesser 
quality. 

" Besides, all the estates in the kingdom were grants 
from the Crown, as appears from the tenures. And yet it 
would have been look'd upon as an arbitrary attempt to have 
taken them away. For a gift is a translation of right; 
it extinguishes the title of the donor, and vests the property 
in another. 

'* But this alienation of Abby-lands was made by Act of 
Parliament. That is true ; and therefore it was a legal 
outing. But then it will be ask'd, if a great part of the 
temporal Lords, and others of the rich Laity, had been 
thrown out of their Estates by a Statute; if this had hap- 
pened, the question is, whether such proceedings would not 
have been thought an instance of rigour^ and a mysterious 
exercise of authority ? Had they been thus impoverished, 
without treason or felony to deserve it, the legality of the 
form, and the pleasure of the legislators, would hardly have 
reconciled them to such usage. They could not have argued 
against the force of the law, but the friendship of those that 
made it would not have been so clear. 

* Farther, the Endowments of the Church were settled 
upon important considerations : for the honour of God, for 
the advancement of learning, for the interest of eternity. 
And therefore, in Acts of Resumption, the Church has been 
particularly excepted. 



162 The Transactions of K> Henry V III. as 

" Lastly, the rights and liberties of the Church had been 
confirmed in thirty Parliaments. This made some people 
think it strange, that King Henry VII l.-*s Parliaments 
should be of so very different a sentiment from those in for- 
mer reigns. " 

II. "f The advantages accruing to the Publick from 
these Religious Houses Were considerable upon several ac- 
counts* To mention some of them. The temporal Nobili- 
ty and Gentry had a credible way of providing for their 
younger children. Those who were disposed to withdraw 
from the world, or not likely to make their fortunes in it, 
had a handsome retreat to the cloister. Here they were 
furnish'd with conveniencies for life and study, with oppor- 
tunities for thought and recollection ; and over and above, 
pass'd their time in a condition not unbecoming their quali- 
ty. The charge of the family being thus lessen'd, there was no 
temptation for racking of tenants, no occasion for breaking 
the bulk of the estate to provide for younger children. Thus^ 
figure and good house-keeping was maintained with greater 
ease, the entireness of the estate, and, by consequence, the 
lasting of the family better secured, 'lis true, there was 
sometimes some small sums given to the monasteries for ad- 
mitting persons to be professed ; but, generally speakiug, 
they received them gratis. This they thought most advise* 
able, to cultivate an interest with persons of distinction. 
By this means, they engaged great families to appear for 
them upon occasion, both in Court and in Parliament. 

" The Abbies were serviceable places for the education of 
young people. Every Convert had one person, or more, 
assign'd for this business. Thus the children of the 
neighbourhood were taught grammar and music, without 
any charge to their parents. And in the Nunneries, those 
of the other sex learn' d to work, and read English, with some 
advances into Latin ; and particularly the Nunnery of God- 
stow, in Oxfordshire, was famous upon this account, and 
tor breeding up young gentlewomen and others to improve- 
ments proper to their condition. 

u Farther, it is to the Abbies we are obliged for most of 
our Historians, both of Church and State. These places of 
retirement had both most learning and leisure for such un- * 
dertakings. Neither did they want information for such 
employment. For not to mention that several Episcopal 
Sees were founded for the Cloister, the Mitred Abbots sate 

f Colter's Eed. Hitt. Vol.11. B.ii. p. 165. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 163 

in Parliament, and not a few of the religions had a share in 
the Convocation. It is not denied but that they were some 
of the best landlords. Their reserved rents were low, and 
their jines easy ; and sometimes the product of the farms, 
without paying money, discharged the tenants in a great 
measure. They were particularly remarkable for their hos- 
pitality. The Monasteries were, as it were, houses of pub- 
lick entertainment for the gentry that travelled. And as for 
their distributions of charity, it may be guess' d from one 
instance. While the Religious Houses were standing, there 
were no provisions of Parliament to relieve the poor ; no as- 
sessment upon the parish for that purpose. But now this 
charge upon the kingdom amounts, at a moderate computa- 
tion, to eight hundred thousand pounds per annum. 

" Besides this rent-charge, as it were, drawn upon the 
whole nation by the dissolution, the ancient nobility suf- 
fered considerably. For the seisure and surrender of the 
Abbies being confirm'd to the Crown by Act of Parliament, 
the services reserved by the founders were extinguished of 
course. To mention some of them : the Abbots that held by 
knight's service, were bound to provide such a number of 
soldiers as their estates required, and to furnish them for 
thejield at their own charges. Thus the men were to ap- 
pear at the musters, and attend the heirs of their founders, 
or such benefactors who had settled a knight's fee upon 
them. 

iC Secondly, where they held by knight-service, they were 
hound to contribute towards a fortune for marrying their 
Lord's eldest daughter. And thirdly, to pay a sum of mo* 
ney to defray the expences of knighthood, when that dis- 
tinction was confer'd upon the founder's eldest son. 

^Lastly, the founders had the benefit oicorrodies: that 
is, they had the privilege of quartering a «>er tain number of 
poor servants upon the Abbies. Tims people that were worn 
up with age and labour, and in no condition to support 
themselves, were not thrown up to starving ov parish collec- 
tions, but had a comfortable retreat to the Abbies, where 
they were maintain'd, without hardship or marks of indi- 
gence, during life." 

111. " f When the Monks were settled here in the reign 
of King Edgar, they promoted a general improvement. 
They were very industrious in restoring learning, and re- 
trieving the country from the remarkable-ignorance of those 

f CellUr's Eeel. Hist. Yol.II, B. i. p. 19. 



164 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII, as 

times. Their labours were answered with success : inso». 
much, that whereas before scarce any Secular Priest could 
write or read a Latin epistle, [Elfric Prwf. ad Gram. Sax.'] 
(he lace of things was so changed by the endeavours ofDun- 
stan and his master Ethelrvald, that in a short time learning 
was generally restored, and began to flourish. From this 
period the Monasteries were the schools and seminaries of 
almost the whole Clergy, both secular and regular. For 
the Universities (if we had more than one) were then very 
slender societies, and the Muses were confined, as 'twere, 
tp the cloisters. The Monks thus rising in their figure, 
made a considerable progress in the restoration of learning. 
They bred their novices to letters : and to this purpose, 
every Monastery had a peculiar College in each of the 
Universities. And even to the time of their dissolution, 
they maintain'd a great number of children at school for the 
service of the Church. And a little before the Reformation, 
many of the great Monasteries were nurseries of learning. 
Their superiors were men of distinction this way, and great 
promoters of their own sufficiency in others. — From hence 
it appears, that the Monks deserved a fairer character than 
is sometimes given them : and that in the darkest and most 
exceptionable ages they were far from being enemies to 
learning. " 



§ 9. — The Motives that induced K. Henry VIII. to dissolve 
the Religious Houses, fyc. are recited and answered. 

Motive I. i_ he King's Necessities. — Answer. It is pretty 
plaiu in history, that this King's necessities were the neces- 
sary and unavoidable consequence of his own squandering 
prodigality and boundless profusion, both at home and 
abroad. At home, if we view him, u f Nothing was to be 
&een but tilts, tournaments, bolls, and such diversions. — ■ 
But tho' these entertainments might seem worthy a great 
young Prince, who had a mind to show the world the mag- 
nificence of his court, yet they were very fatal in their con- 
sequences, by giving him a constant habit of expence, till 
the treasures of the Crown were so exhausted, as to put 
him upon impious measures to support his necessities." — 
Then, as to his personal expeditions abroad, they do not 

f Short View, p. 180. 



Supreme Head of the Church. Hi 5 

seem to have been always necessary, or even expedient. 
For it seems "fThis high-spirited and valiant Prince, 1 ' as 
my Lor d Herbert characters him, "would needs engage 
himself beyond what was requisite, and would be an acta/, 
for the most part, when he needed only to have been a 
spectator." 

Now, (to say nothing of the prodigious luxury of this 
King's Court) I only ask, whether it were requisite that 
his Majesty should interfere personally in romantic ex- 
peditions on the continent, and exhaust the treasures of 
the crown in foreign fruitless campaigns, when he might 
have contented himself with being a spectator only ? And 
what necessity there could be for him to cross the seas in a 
superb vessel, rigged out (as Lord Hei^bert assures us) with 
sails of cloth of gold °! 

Granting, therefore, that magnificence (within the bounds 
of moderation) may be no discommendable qualification in a 
great Prince ; yet, on the other hand, is not prodigality a 
vice ? .And if so, we do not see how it can be exculpated 
by the feeble plea of necessity. One may indeed sometimes 
make a virtue of necessity ; but does it not forfeit that title, 
when it becomes the patroness of vice * And does woiprodi- 
gality fall under that denomination ? In short, let the 
King's necessities be what they would, or by what ways or 
means soever contracted, it must, we presume, be allowed, 
they were impiously supported by sacrilegious plundering, 
and unjust confiscations. Nay, supposing the Church 
Treasure had been put to better uses, this surely is no excuse 
for the sacrilegious seizure of it. 

"J The Christian world," says our Noble Historian, 
a was astonished at these doings : and tho' the excessive 
number of the Houses excused the King, in some part, for 
the first suppression of the lesser Houses under *2G0 pounds, 
yet the latter suppression of the great Houses had no such 
specious pretext, when their surrender, purchase, or the 
like, was urged ; so that, notwithstanding the King's neces- 
sities, no little occasion of scandal and obloquy was given. 
For, besides the houses and lands taken away, there was 
much money made of the present stock of cattle and corn, 
of the timber, lead, bells, &c. and chiefly of the plate and 
church ornaments, which were not valued. All which being- 
by some openly called rapine and sacrilege, I will no way 
excuse." 

f Lord Herbert's Life of King Henry VIII. p. 511. + Ibid. p. 442. 






166 The Transactions of K. Henry VI LI. a$ 

Motive II. The excessive number of Religious Houses. 
— Answer. To tins excuse it may be answered : That the re- 
dundancy of Religious Houses (if any such there was) 
might possibly induce the Government to lop off the super- 
numerary o<fcs ; but why was the undistinguishing axe un- 
mercifuliy laid to the root of all the rest? " f It is very ill 
surgery, to lop off a limb when there is any hopes of a cure : 
there is no human institution but will be liable to some er- 
rors and inconveniences ; but if the good on the other band 
outbalances the ill, we ought so to distinguish, as to preserve 
the one, and remove the other. These places were first 
founded by the piety of our ancestors, with a charitable de- 
sign, to give a retreat to such persons as had a mind to de- 
tach themselves from the affairs of the world, and dedicate 
their lives to the service of God, in a state of quiet and de- 
votion. By these people were the hungry fed, the naked 
cloathed, and the dead buried; with all other acts of cha- 
rity, which seemed so essential to the spirit of Christianity. 
But to all this it may be objected, that, tho' these were the 
designs of the first founders, these houses, by the corruption 
of time, were degenerated into nurseries of sloth. How- 
ever, tho' there might be some instances of this nature, it 
does not follow, that an institution should be abolished for 
the abuse of it ; any more than that there should be no inns 
to receive honest travellers, because some publick bouses 
harbour thieves and highwaymen. A severe visitation might 
have corrected these abuses, without turning so many reli- 
gious into the world, which, by the most solemn vows, they 
had abandopM before." 

Motive III. The Monks, &c. led immoral lives. — 
Answer. 1. "J That the narratives of this kind were 
swell'd beyond truth and proportion may well be suspected, 
from the mercenary tempers of some of the Visitors.— Be- 
sides, that several of the Religious Houses had a fair repu- 
tation, appears from authentic records." — [Having said thus 
much in defence of the Religious in general, our Author 
produces not a few particular testimonies (and those mostly 
signed by the hands of the Visitors themselves) of the inof- 
fensive and unexceptionable behaviour of the following Re- 
ligious Houses, viz.]—*" The Abby of S. Edmundsbtfry y 
Suffolk. The Priory of Catesby, Northamptonshire. The 

f Short View, p. 189. 

% Collier's Eccl. Hist.VoL II. Bookiii. p. 155. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 1 67 

Abby of Cliffe, in Cornwell. The Abby of Ramsey. The 
Priory of Boxgrave. The Nunnery of Polesworth, in War- 
wickshire. The Priory of Woolstrop, in Northamptonshire. 
The Nunnery of Godstow. The Abby of Rewly, in Oxford- 
shire. The Abby of Hewtin. The Nunnery of Leyburne. 

' There are, subjoins our Historian, several other fair 

testimonials of the Regularity of the Religious Houses to be 
seen upon record in the Augmentation Office, but what I 
have raention'd may be sufficient." — Sufficient they are, to 
prove demonstratively, that there were more righteous 
9$Qtl&#tZVit& in England, than righteous mtti in Sodom. 

2. Mr. Fuller tells us, "fit is confessed by impartial 
people, that some Monasteries of both sexes, being put to 
the test, appeared very commendable in their behaviour, so 
that the least aspersion could not be cast upon them, i 
read in one Author, (Ld. Herbert, p. 899,) That some *o- 
cieties behaved themselves so well, that their lives were not 
only exempt from notorious faults, but their spare time be- 
stowed in writing books, painting, carving, engraving. — — 
Amongst these, the nunnery of Godstow, near Oxford, 
must not be forgotten ; which as it hath a good name (be- 
ing God's house or habitation) it well answer 7 d thereunto, 
in the conditions of the people living therein." 

3. It is certain, that the pretended disorders and immo- 
ralities of the Monks, &c. (both with regard to their number 
and enormity) were most superlatively exaggerated and 
magnified beyond measure, by the Visit or -General and his 
most sagacious sin-questors. Every trifling mole-hill of a 
fault was by them very dexterously magic-lanterned into 
the size of a mountain ; and every peccadillio with which the 
Religious could possibly be charged, was represented un- 
der the formidable appearance of a first-rate enormity. This 
is ingenuously confessed by D. Heytin, who fairly owns 
that the Visitors " J Represented their offences in such 
multiplying glasses, as made them seem both greater in 
number, and more horrid in nature, than indeed they were." 
— All which things considered, we may reasonably con- 
clude, that the reports made by Cromwel and his emissaries 
in disfavour of the Heligious, deserve but little notice, and 
less credit. But, 

4. "§ There is another heavier imputation laid upon the 

f Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book VI. p. 316. 

X Heylin's Hist, Ref. p. 90. 

6 C 'oilier 's Eccl Hist. Vol. IT. E. \l p. lou. 



Ifil The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

Monks. They are charged with a crime of the most fla- 
grant nature : that they were so far from any reserve or 
discretion in their licentiousness, that some of their farms 
were let for bringing in a yearly tribute to their lusts. [Bur* 
nefs Hist. Ref. Vol. i. p. 180.] This charge is reported 
[by Burnet] in such decisive language, that one would 
think the fact was beyond question. But Fuller, from 
whom the passage is taken, believes the story altogether im- 
probable. He produces but a single instance, and has but 
an ill vouchee for the report. His evidence is only Stephen 
Marshall, the Smectymnian Divine. This man pretended 
to see ah Abby-lease with such a provision. But then, all 
things considered, his testimony deserves but little credit in 
such depositions. " 

As for Mr. Fuller, (after all his laborious search) he 
fairly owns, " * It never was his hap to see a lease with 
such a wanton reservation in it." — And the reasons why he 
cannot be induced to believe any such thing are — 1. u Be- 
cause such a turpis conditio was null in the very making 
thereof. 2. Because the Abbots had more discretion than to 
suffer such an act to remain in scriptis, which, upon occa- 
sion, might publickly be produced against them." 

The barbarous calumny being thus fairly confuted by Mr. 
Fuller himself, it may not be improper, we presume, to ex- 
tend our inquiry a littie farther, in order to place in its pro- 
per light the character oi the vile author of it. 

Mr. Collier has indeed concealed this notorious enthusiast 
from the knowledge of the generality of his readers, under 
the soft title of a Smectymnian Divine. But the author of 
Mercvrius Rust has (p. 16) writes with less reserve. He 
strips the wolf of his sheep's eloathing, and exposes him to 
public view in his own natural garb and colours. u Stephen 
Marshall" says he, " was parson of Finchingfield, in Es- 
sex, the great incendiary of the unhappy civil wars." — la 
another place, (viz. p. 238) he styles him the Archfiamen 
of the Rebels. And D. Heylin characters him a principal 
zealot in the cause of Presbytery. — See an instance of this 
man's frantic zeal for that cause, in the Appendix, No. XIII. 
And the cabalistic word Smectymnuus explained in the same 
Appendix, No. XIV. 

We shall conclude this section with the following re- 
marks : First, that Bp. Burnet must certainly have been 
(to make use of his own expression) a man of an undaunted 

* Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book VI. p. 318„ 



Supreme Head of the Church. 1 69 

conscience ; otherwise it is impossible to conceive how he 
oould ever have had the courage to propagate scandal (and 
that too in the most decisive language) to the latest posterity, 
merely upon the strength (or rather weakness) of hear-say 
evidence; which, in common courts of judicature, goes for 
nothing", and, in short, is no evidence at all. 

Secondly, we would advise all those good-natured writ- 
ers, who, Burnet like, take a malignant kind of pleasure 
in discovering" monastic immoralities, to lay their hands 
upon their breasts, and consider in sober earnest, ' Whe- 
ther .the Church of England Bishops and Clergy may be 
thought the properest persons in the world to throw the first 
stone V Are they more guarded in their conduct, more 
chaste in their lives, more exemplar in their behaviour, more 
circumspect in their words, more edifying in their actions, 
more moderate in their diet, more temperate in their cups, 
more punctual in the service of God, and more detached 
from the pleasures and vanities of tliis world, than the 
Monks of o\<\} Are they more addicted to contemplation, 
prayer, fasting, mortification, self-denial, meekness, and 
humility, than all the Religious Orders put together ? Does 
their charity to the poor, their hospitality, unfeigned devoti- 
on,, and strict regularity, exceed whatever has been formerly 
practised in our Monasteries ? If little or nothing of all 
this can be pleaded in their behalf, with justice and truth, 
what will it avail them, or any of them, to rail eternally 
against the Monks, and satirize the conduct of Religious 
Houses ? What will it avail them, to be employed in the dirty 
business of discovering spots upon Religious Habits, if their 
own prunella be not, perhaps, entirely free from dirt I Alas ! 
how easy a matter is it, to discern a mote in our brother' 5 
eye ! how hard to discover a beam in our own ! 

Motive IV. The Monks were a set of idle, ignorant 
drones ; neither cultivating learning themselves, nor pro- 
moting it amongst others. — Answer. This insipid cavil is 
repeated over and over again by Bp. Burnet 9 in his tedious 
History of the Reformation, where, to give the man his due, 
he seldom fails to embrace every opportunity that offers him 
the slightest hint, to declaim against monkish ignorance. 
To give an instance : he has the effrontery to assure his 
reader, that "f The Monks being settled, gave themselves 
*ip to idleness and pleasure, having in their hands the chief 

+ B*rruttl$Mst. Ref. Vol. I. p. 22. 

z 



170 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

encouragements to learning, and yet doing nothing towards 
it ; but, on the contrary, decrying it, and disparaging it 
all they could." 

But (without taking notice that there is nothing more 
common with this romantic Historiographer, than to failboth 
in truth and temper) we can promise him a full and satisfac- 
tory answer to his groundless objection, from authors less 
prejudiced, and therefore more candid and dispassionate 
than himself. And thus does the famous Antiquary, Mr. 
Thomas liearn, apologize for the Monks, in point of illi- 
teracy. 

" f Besides their immorality, there was," sa) r s he, " ano- 
ther objection, which was urged against the Monks with no 
less vehemence ; and that was, their want of learning. The 
Visitors thought that charge would conduce very much to 
diminish their credit and reputation. But alas ! this charge 
was really as groundless and weak as the former. No body 
doubts that the Monasteries had divers members that could 
not be stiled learned. But when we discourse of learned 
bodies, these ought not to be considered ; at least their ig- 
norance ought not to be look'd upon as sufficient to deno- 
minate them unlearned. Add to this, that sometimes those 
illiterate persons were eminent upon some other account, and 
consequently might prove very serviceable to the Monaste- 
ries. After all, 'tis very certain, that a great number of the 
Monks were men of very profound learning, and of extraordi- 
nary abilities. Had they been otherwise, it is impossible 
to account for the incredible number of books written by 
them. No one that reads either Boston of Burg, or Leland, 
or other writers that say any thing of their writings, can 
justly suppose them to have been illiterate men. On the 
contrary, many of their writings are very judicious, &r\&full 
of learning ; nay, in some parts of learning they exceeded 
any of our moderns ; which is an argument, not only of 
excellent parts, but of their constant and unwearied diligence 
a n d application.'' ' 

44 I The English Monks," says a Church Historian, 
" were bookish of themselves, and much inclined to hoard 
up monuments of learning. Britain, (we know) is stiled 
another world, and in this contradistinction (tho' incompa- 
rably less in quantity) acquits itself in proportion of famous 

+ Rerun's Preliminary Observ. on Mr. Browne Willis's View of the Mitred 
Amies. 

J Fuller's Ck. Hist, B. yi. pp. 334, 335. 



Supreme Head of the Ch u r ch. 171 

Writers, producing almost as many classical schoolmen for 
her natives, as all Europe besides. Other excellent books 
of foreign authors were brought hither, purchased at dear 
rates, if we consider the press (which now runs so incredi- 
bly fast) was at that age in her infancy, newly able to go 
alone, there being then few printed books, in comparison of 
the many manuscripts. These, if carefully collected, and 
methodically compiled, would have amounted to a library, 
exceeding that of Ptolemy's for plenty, or many Vatican* 
for choicenes.s and rarity. Yea, had they been transported 
beyond the seas, sent over, and sold entire to such who 
knew their value, and would preserve them, England's loss 
had been Europe's gain, and the detriment the less to 
learning in general. Yea, many years after, the English 
might have repurchased for pounds what their grandfathers 
sold for fewer pence into foreign parts. But alas ! those 
Abbies were now sold to such chapmen, in uhom it was 
questionable whether their ignorance or avarice were 
greater, and they made havock and destruction of all. — 
The covers of books, with curious brass bosses and clasps, 
intended to protect, proved to betray them, being the baits 
of covetousness. And so many excellent authors, stript out 
of their cases, were left naked, to be burnt or thrown 
away. — But hear how John Bale, a man sufficiently averse 
from the least shadow of Po;;ery, hating all Monkery with 
a perfect hatred, complained hereof to King Edward VI. 
* Never had we been offended,' says he, c for the loss of our 
libraries, being so many in number, and in so desolate 
places, for the more part, if the chief monuments and most 
notable works of our most excellent writers had been re- 
served, if there had been in every shire in England but one 
solemn library to the preservation of those most noble 
works, and preferment of good learning in our posterity, it 
had been somewhat. But to destroy all, without consi- 
deration, is, and will be, unto England, for ever, a most 
horrible infamy, among the grave seniors of other nations. 
A great number of them which purchased those superstitious 
mansions, reserved those library books, some to serve their 
jokes, some to scour their candlesticks, and to rub their 
boots. Some they sold to the grocers and soapsellers, and 
some they sent over sea to the bookbinders ; not in small 
numbers, but at times whole ships foil, to the wondering of 
foreign nations. Yea, the Universities of this realm are not 
all clear in this detestable fact. But cursed is that belly 
which seeketh to be fed with such ungodly gains, and so 

Z2 



172 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

deeply shametb his natural country. I know a merchantman, 
which shall at this time be nameless, that bought the con- 
tents of two noble libraries for 40 shillings price : a shame 
it is to be spoken This stuff' hath he occupied instead of 
gray paper by the space of more than these ten years, and 
yet he hath store enough for as many years to come. A 
prodigious example this, and to be abhorred of all men 
which love their nation as they should do. Yea, what may 
bring our realm to more 9hame and rebuke, than to have it 
noised abroad that we are despisers of learning ? I judge 
this to be true, and utter it with heaviness, that neither the 
Britons under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English 
people under the Danes and Normans, had ever such da- 
mage of their learned monuments, as we have seen in our 
time. Our posterity may well curse this wicked fact of our 
age, this unreasonable spoil of England^ most noble anti- 
quities. ' — — Now what soul can be so frozen (continues Mr. 
Fuller) as not to melt into anger hereat ? What heart, hav- 
ing the Teast spark of ingenuity, is not hot at this indignity 
offered to literature? I deny not but in this heap of books 
there was much rubbish.— But, besides these, what beautiful 
Bibles r rare Fathers, subtile Schoolmen, useful Historians, 
ancient, middle, modern; what painful comments were here 
amongst them, what monuments of raathematicks, all mas- 
sacred together; seeing every Book with a Cross was con- 
demned for Popish, with Circles, for Conjuring! — And 
more particularly the history of former times, then and there, 
received a dangerous wound, whereof it halts to this day ; 
and without hope of a perfect cure, must go a cripple to the 
grave ! ry 

" * The Monks, ,T says another writer, " were formerly 
the greater part of Ecclesiasticks, and the walls of Convents 
were, for a long time, the fences of sanctity and the better 
sort of literature. From that seminary came forth those 
mighty Lights of the Christian world, Bede T Akuinus, Wil- 
lebrord, Boniface, and others, worthy of much honour for 
their learning, and for propagating the faith. Were it not 
for the Monks, we had certainly ever been children in the 
history of our own country. Many ill consequences attend- 
ed the Suppression of Religious Houses ; but it is my de- 
sign at present to take notice only of the great decay of 
learning that was like to ensue the dissolution ; insomuch, 
that in Parliaments held 2 and 3 Edtv. VI. there were Bills 

* Mr. Marsham's Pre/, to Dug. Man. 



Supreme Head of the Church, 173 

brought in for encouraging men to give lands for the main- 
tenance of schools of learning. And the loss of good books 
was irreparable, as Bale honestly tells us. Bale, one of the 
most bitter enemies the Monks ever had, is forced to lciment 
the great damage the learned world sustained at this disso- 
lution. Indeed, those well furnished libraries, that were in 
most Monsteries, plainly show, that we are too much preju- 
diced against the Monks, when we rashly condemn them at 
idle, ignorant r or discouragers of learning ; and that, on the 
contrary, we ought to esteem many of them to be leamtdand 
industrious, and promoters of several useful parts of know- 
ledge. In every Abby there was a large room, called the 
Scriptorium , to which belonged several writers, whose busi- 
ness it was to transcribe books for the use of the public li- 
brary of the House. There were no less than 1700 manu- 
script tracts in the library at Peterborough, and the cata- 
logue of books belonging to the Priory of Dover, and the 
Abby of S.Mary de la Pre, at Leicester, clearly evince that 
those Houses had no mean libraries, and those kept in very 
good order. Nay, so zealous were the Monks lor the encou- 
ragement of learning, that they very often got churches ap- 
propriated adlibrosfaciendoSy for making of books ; nor were 
they less careful in preserving the old. The British, Irish, 
and Saxon Monasteries, we find, were the Schools and 
Universities of those times. They were not only cells of 
devotion, but also nurseries of learned men for the use of 
the Church. The works of Bede are a sufficient argument 
of the knowledge the Monks of those times had in all parts of 
learning. Their skill in the learned languages was so very 
eminent, that 'tis reported some of them understood Greek 
and Latin as well as their mother tongue. When the Monks 
were rooted out by the Danish wars, an universal ignorance 
overspread the land, insomuch that there was scarce any one 
in England that could read or write Latin ; but when, by the 
care of King Edward and Archbishop Dunstan, Monaste- 
ries were restored, learning found its tormer encourage- 
ment, and flourished very much within the wails of cloisters. 
So that Leland, who was no great friend to the Monks, often 
confesses, that in those old times there were few or no writ- 
ers but Monks." 

Now from these fair testimonials of the unprejudiced, it 
plainly appears that the Monks were men of extraordinary 
abilities, of profound learning themselves, and great pro- 
moters of it in others. And as for the prejudiced, they have 
but little reason to be surprised, that the Monks should leave 



174 The Transactions of K. Jffenry VIII. as 

so few traces of literature behind them ! For whose fault 
was that ? Or how could it possibly be otherwise, when the 
total suppression of the Religious Houses was followed by 
a total destruction of all the monastic literary remains that 
were any where to be found ? 

But is it not much more surprising, that after several 
cargoes of valuable manuscripts, &c. had been shipped for 
foreign parts, (not to mention such as were lamentably de- 
stroyed at home) is it not, I say, something still more sur- 
prising, that the man with the undaunted conscience (in 
which expression Bp. Burnet has drawn his own picture) 
should not blush to tell the world in print, that the Monks 
did nothing towards the advancement of learning, but, on the 
contrary, decried and disparaged it all they could ? 

But let it be remembered, that those who decry and dis- 
parage the monks for the want of erudition, can be no great 
conjurers in history ; and that, while they declaim against 
monkish ignorance, they only betray their own, 

. Motiie V. It was pretended, that the small Societies 
were not so capable of Reformation as the great ones. — 
Answer. The reverse of this pretence happens to be the very 
truth. For we see no reason to suppose or assert, that the 
little Houses, (as Mr. Fuller facetiously expresses it) like 
little fishes, slipt through the mashes, and were not to 
he caught in the net of Reformation. But to be se- 
rious. 

** t 'Tis somewhat strange, discipline should be most 
insignificant, where there were fewest to be governed and 
infect the rest ; and that no regulation could be of force 
enough to keep a few people within compass." 

On the contrary, it is evident, from the nature of the 
thing, that less time and labour are requisite to go through 
the Reformation of a small, than of a numerous society. 
And for the truth of this remark, we appeal to common 
cense. 

But it is farther objected by some, that corruptions had, 
by degrees, not only crept into the Houses, but into the very 
Rules of the Religious Orders. To which we answer, that 
in the Preamble to the Act for dissolving the lesser Houses, 
no mentiou is made of any such corruptions in the Religious 
Institutions. It is true, indeed, that in the Form of Surrender 
the Religious are compelled to plead guilty of abusing the 

f Collier** Eccl Hist. Vol. II. B. ii. p. 114. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 173 

Bides of their Profession : but neither in the body of that 
instrument, nor in the abovementioned preamble, do we 
meet with any thing", directly or indirectly, urged against 
the Monastic Rules themselves ; which certainly would not 
have been omitted, in case there had been any foundation 
for so material an impeachment. 

After all, the abuse of a rule is no argument against the 
goodness or sanctity of it. For may not the best and moat 
sacred things in the world be depraved, corrupted, or abus- 
ed ? If the abuse of a thing is sufficient to discard the use 
of it, the argument proves too much. It is a ridiculous pre- 
varication, and goes against every thing. 

Motive VI. The Religious made a Voluntary Resigna- 
tion of their Houses and Possessions into the King'3 
Hands. — Answer. This is expressly contradicted by all our 
Historians of any considerable character and iigure. To 
produce a few instances. 

1. Mr. Fuller has already told us, that all the Mo- 
nasteries, excepting Christ Church Piiory, (whatever mau 
be pretended to the contrary) were taken by storm: and 
that the Religious were given to understand, that all their 
surrenders might and would be done without their consent. 

y. Sir William Dugdale has likewise assured us, that 
what could not be effected by fair promises, was by terror 
and severe dealing brought to pass. And moreover, that 
there was no omission of any endeavour [whether of force or 
fraud] that can well be imagined, to accomplish these sur- 
renders. 

3. Sir Henry Spelman, in the Preface to his Treatise De 
non temerandis Ecclesiis, informs us, that "With some he 
[Cromwell prevailed by entreaty and good annuities, with 
others by the King's power and sword. For the Abbots o£ 
Glassenbury, Reading, and Colchester, whose innocence 
had made them regardless of threats, and their piety abhor 
rewards, to betray their Churches, were, as enemies to 
the State, condemned and hang'd. Others, terrified by 
their examples, leave all to the disposal of the King." 

4. Lord Herbert relates, that "f After the Visitation of 
the Religious Houses by Commissioners from the Kiug, 
divers of the Commissioners did petition the King, that 
some of the Houses, both for tlve vertue of the persons in 

f Lord Herbert's Life of K. Henry VIII. p. 442. 



376 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

them, and the benefit of the country, (the poor receiving 
thence great relief, and the richer sort good education for 
their children,) might be left, in every shire, for pious uses ; 
but Cromwell, by the King's permission, invaded all ; whilst, 
betwixt threats, gifts, promises, persuasions, and whatever 
might make a man obnoxious, he obtained of the Abbots, 
Abbesses, &C that their Houses might be given up." 

In fine, whatever sham-motives might be divulged, in 
order to inveigle or amuse the populace, it is certain " *King 
Henry, and Wis covetous and ambitious agents, ail aimed at 
the revenues and riches of the Religious Houses. For which 
reason, no arts or contrivances were to be passed by, that 
might be of use in obtaining their ends. The most abomina- 
ble crimes were charged upon the Religious, and the charge 
was to be managed with the utmost industry, boldness, and 
dexterity. This was a powerful argument to draw an odi- 
um upon them, and to make them disrespected and ridiculed 
by the generality of mankind. And yet, after all, the proofs 
were so insufficient, that, from what I have been able to 
-gather, I have not found any direct one against even any 
single Monastery. The sins of one or two particular per- 
sons do not make a Sodom. Neither are violent and forced 
confessions to be esteem'd as the true results of any one's 
thoughts. When, therefore, even these artifices would not 
do, the last expedient was put in execution, and that was 
ejection by force : and to make the innocent sufferers the 
more content, pensions were settled upon many ; and such 
pensions were, in some measure, proportioned to their inno- 
cence. Thus by decrees, the Religious Houses, and the 
estates belonging to them, being surrendered to the King, 
he either sold or gave them to the lay Nobility and Gentry, 
contrary to what he had at first pretended, and so they have 
continued ever since ; tho' not without visible effects of 
God's vengeance and displeasure, there having been direful 
anathemas and curses denounced by the founders upon such 
as should presume to alienate the lands, or do any other vo- 
luntary injury to the Religious Houses. Icould myself produce 
instances of the strange and unaccountable decay of some 
Gentlemen in ray own time, otherwise persons of very great 
piety and worth, who have been possessed of Abby -lands ; 
but this would be invidious and offensive, and therefore I 
shall only refer those that are desirous of having instances 

* Mr. Heam loco[sup, eit. 



Supreme Head of the Church . 177 

'laid before them, to show what dismal consequences have 
happened to Sir Henry Spelman's History of Sacrilege, 
publish'd in 8vo. in 1698." 

We shall conclude our Answer to this Motive, with a 
flagrant instance of a forced surrender, practised upon the 
Benedictine Nuns of Gods tow by D. London. This prag- 
matical busy-body being dispatched to take the surrender 
of that Nunnery, and finding* the Abbess incompliant, made 
no difficulty to tell her, that because he found her obstinate, 
lie would dissolve the Monastery in spite of her teeth. Of 
the absurdity of this insolent Visitor's conduct upon that 
occasion, the Abbess very justly, (tho' frustraneously) com- 
plains in a Letter to Lord Cromwell, still extant, and thus 
worded. 

c Pleasith it your Honor, with my most humble dowtye, 
to be advertised, that when it haith pleasyd your Lordship 
to be the verie meane to the King's Majestie for my pie- 
ferment, most unworthie, to be Abbes of this the King's 
Monasterie of Godystowe, in the which office I trust 1 have 
done the best in my power to the mayntenance of God's 
trewe honor, with all treuth and obedience to the King's 
Majestic, and was never moved or desired, by any crea- 
ture, in the King's behalie, or in your Lordship's name, 
to surrender and give up the House ; nor was never 
my tided or intended so to -do,, otherwise than at the 
King's gracious commandment or yours. To the which I 
do and have ever done, and will submit myself most hum- 
blie and obedientlie. And I trust to God, that 1 have never 
oflendyd God's law, neither the King's, whereby that this 
poor Monasterie ought to be suppressed. And this not- 
withstanding, my good Lord, so it is, that D. London, 
which, (as your Lordship doth well know) was agaynst my 
promotion, and hath ever since borne me great malys and 
grudge, like my mortall enemye, is sodenlie cummyd unto 
me with a greate rcwte with him, and here doth threten me 
and my Sisters, saying that he hath the King's Commissio'i 
to suppress this House, spy te of my tethe. And when hesavv 
that i was not contente that ke should do all things according 
to his commission, and shewyd himplaine that I wolde never 
surrender to his hande, being my awncyent enemye ; he now 
begins to in treat me, and to invegle my sisters, one by one, 
otherwise than ever 1 herde teil that the King's Subjects hath 
been handelyd, and here taryeth and contynueth to my great 
coste and charges, and will not take my answere, that I 
will not surrender till I know the King's gracious com- 

A a 



178 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

mandment or your Lordship's. Therefore I most humbtie 
beseche you to contynue my good Lord, as you ever have 
bene, and to directe your honourable letters to remove him 
hens. And whensoever the King's gracious commandment, 
or your's, shall come to me, you shall find me most reddie, 
and obeydiant to folloe the same. And notwithstanding 
that D. London, like an untrew man, hath informed your 
Lordship, that I am a spoiler and waster, your good Lord- 
ship shall know, that the contrary is trewe, for 1 have not 
alienatyd one halporthe of goods of this Monasterie, move- 
able or unmoveable, but have rather increased the same ; 
nor ever made lease of any farme or peece of grownde be- 
longyng to this House ; or than ever have been in times 
paste, alwaiesset under the Covent Seal for the weal of the 
House. And therefore my verie truste is, that I shall fynd 
the King as gracious a Lorde unto me, as he is to all other 
his subjects; seeyng I have not offended ; and am and will 
be moste obedyent to his most gracious commandment at all 
tymes, with the grace of Almighty Jesus, who ever preserve 
you in honour, longe to endure to his pleasure. Amen.— 
* Godistou, y e 5 Daie of Nov. 

' Your most bownden Beeds Woman, 

' Katharine Bulkeley, Abbes there.' 

Of this same D. London we have already taken notice from 
Mr. Fuller, what a vile perjured wretch he was, and how 
fit to be employed to insult Religious Ladies. But neither 
the infamy of this miscreant, nor the virtue of the Nuns, 
availed the Monastery. The instrument was fit for the 
work he had to do ; and those that made use of him, [King 
Henri/ and Lord Cromwell] had no occasion for a better. 

Motive VII. For the Suppression of the Chanteries, &c, 
the Danger of the Priests and Governors frustrating the' 
pious Donations, was pretended. — Answer. This is but a 
lame excuse at the best. For how can it be imagined there 
should be no laws then in being, or that none could be 
enacted strong enough to curb such Priests and Governors^ 
and to keep them under proper regulations and restraints ? 
But, in reality, there was no reason why the King should 
dive so deep into politics, for a pretence to destroy these 
Religious Settlements with the rest, when the real motive 
swims upon the surface. The truth of the matter, in short, 
is this. 

The Religious Houses (both little and great) havingbeeu 



Supreme Head of the Church. 17P 

swallowed up in the bottomless vortex of the King's necessi- 
ties, (and these continually increasing) nothing now re- 
mained, as a farther supply to them, but the Chanteries, 
Free-Chapels, Colleges, Hospitals, Fraternities, Guilds, 
and the maintenance for stipendiary Priests, with the lands 
and estates settled upon them. All which had formerly been 
founded upon such considerations, as neither the King nor 
the Parliaments of those times disavowed, and much less 
condemned. 

However, upon the first parliamentary summons, these 
were all surrendered to his Majesty, sacrificed to the Crown, 
and dissolved for ever, by virtue of a statute, which (right 
or wrong) " f Chargeth misdemeanors on the Priests and 
Governors, that of their own authority, as Governors of the 
aforesaid Chanteries, without the assent of their Patrons, 
Donors, or Founders, they had let leases for lives, or term 
of years, of the said lands, &c. contrary to the will and pur- 
poses of their Founders, to the great contempt of Authority 
Royal. — Wherefore the Parliament puts the King and his 
successors for ever in the real and actual possession of such 
Chanteries, &c." 

" X Now with great submission to the wisdom of the Le- 
gislature, some people would almost be at a loss upon this oc- 
casion : for when prayer for the dead was reckon'd a signifi- 
cant service: when this Prince, in his last will, left money to 
pray for his soul ; when this was the general persuasion, it is 
somewhat surprising, that Chantery-lands should be taken 
away! The Chantery-lands, I say, which were given for 
the benefit of the dead, and settled, as it were, upon the 
other world.!" 

Indeed, nothing had hitherto so much exposed the unrea- 
sonableness of the King's proceedings, and the inconsistency 
of his conduct, as this fact of his laying violent hands upon 
Chanteries and Free-Chapels. The obligations annexed to 
these places (as we have elsewhere observed) were daily sa- 
crifices and prayers, offered up to God, for the relief of the 
deceased Founders and of all the Faithful departed, for 
ever. And this primitive practice the King not only ac- 
knowledged to be beneficial to the dead in genera!, but 
moreover instantly desired, that the same, after his depar- 
ture, might particularly be performed /or the remission of 
his offences, and the nealth of his soul, as I find it e:v- 

f Fuller's Ch. Hist. Book vi. p. 3-30. See also Stat. 38. II. 8. c. 4. 
X Collier's Bed. Hist. Vol. IJ. B. iii. p. 207. 

Aa 2 



180 Tfie Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

pressed in his last will and testament. A copy of which (as 
far as it concerns religious matters) may be seen in the 
Appendix, No. XV. 



§ }0.~The Fruits of K. Henry VIII.'* Reformation. 

Having recited the transactions ofK. Henry the Eighth m 
quality of Supreme Head of the Church, with all the brevity 
that could well be expected in so copious a subject, we shall 
conclude the whole with some account of the consequences, 
the effects, the fruits of his ever memorable deeds of un- 
doing* 

It is not our intention to enumerate every particular ca- 
lamity or disaster which this unhappy Monarch brought 
upon the Church; neither is it necessary so to do; especi- 
ally since they are all reducible to the following general 
Zieads, viz. a deplorable confusion in matters of religion, and 
a general corruption of Christian Morality. 

Of the sad confusion which was, about this time,.introduc- 
ed into Religion, Mr. Fox, (p. 1037) has tfeft us the follow- 
ing plaintive description. " To many who be yet alive, it is 
not unknown how variable the state of Religion stood in 
those days , how hardly, and with what difficulty it came 
forth ; what chances and changes it suffered, even as the 
King was ruled and gave ear, sometimes to one, some- 
times to another. So one while it went forward, at another 
season as much backward again ; sometime clean altered 
and changed for a season, according as they could prevail 
who were about the King. So long as Queen Ann [Bullen] 
lived, the Gospel [he means the new Gospel] had indiffe- 
rent success. Alter that she, by sinister instigation, of 
some about the King, was made away [i.e. beheaded for 
adultery and incest] the course of the Gospel, [alias the 
Reformation] began again to decline ; but the Lord oppor- 
tunely stirred up the Lord Cromwell [ridiculous cant /'] in 
that behalf, who did much for the increase of God's true 
religion [not that he cared a straw for any religion while he 
continued in power] and much more had he brought to per- 
fection, if the pestilent adversaries had not supplanted his 
vertuous proceedings. After the taking away of which 
Cromwell, the state of Religion [meaning the new Religion] 
more and more decayed, during all the residue of the reign 



Su-preme Head of the C?i urch . 1 SI 

of King Henry.'''' Now, since a fit opportunity oilers 

itself, we beg leave to propose the following queries : 1. Whe- 
ther the plundering and demolishing of Religious Houses, 
Churches, Chapels, Altars, &c. with other abominable sa- 
crileges, committed without number by the Lord Cromwel, 
can properly be styled vertuous proceedings ? 2. Whether 
any body but John Fox, the fabulous Martyr-monger, had 
ever front enough to style them so ? 

Conclude we this subject of Variations in Religion, with 

a word or two more from Baker's Chronicle, p. 408. 

" And now," says he, " was the state of Religion come to 
a strange pass, because always in passing, and had no con- 
sistence. For at first, the authority of the Pope was ex- 
cluded in some cases only, awhile after in all. Afterwards 
his doctrine came to be impugned ; but yet in some/^ 
points only ; a while after, in many. That the fable of 
Proteus might be no longer a fable, when the Religion of 
England might be its true moral." 

From this observation and Mr. Fox's complaint, it 
plainly appears, that the new Gospel, in the days of old 
King Harry, was in a very fluctuating and uncertain state : 
that it underwent several chances and changes : that it some- 
times went forward ', sometimes backward : that it was in 
or out of favour, according to the capriciousness of that wil- 
ful Monarch, or the private views of those that were (pro 
tempore) in possession of the royal ear : that, in fine, altho* 
the respective views of King henry, Ann Bullen, and 
Cromwel, might be, in some regards, different, yet they all 
agreed in the main ; which was, to advance the Reforma- 
tion (as Mr. Fox expresses it) upon politick respects. 

In a word, no sooner had King Henry broke the ice, than 
new Gospelers presently started up in almost every city, 
town, and village in England; whose uncouth preach- 
ments, &c. occasioned so many alterations in points of 
faith; such a diversity of opinions, and such chopping and 
changing in religious sentiments, . 

" As if Religion was intended 

For nothing else but to be mended.' 3 

Indeed, ever since the reign of King Henry VIII. our busy 
Reformers have been constantly employed in turning and 
patching the Church ; but to what purpose, it will be a 
hard matter to discover, unless it may be reckoned an ad- 
vantage, to be always upon the change, and never at a 
stand. 



182 The Transactions of K. Henry VIII. as 

Even we ourselves have lived to see proposals offered to 
the public by the authors of the Candid Disquisition, for a 
farther and still purer Reformation of the present Liturgy 
of the Church of England. Nay, which is more, we have 
lived to see (besides a new Reformation lately imported 
from Moravia) a new set of Reformers make their appear- 
ance at home, under the queer denomination of Methodists. 
And what other religious oddity may tread upon the heels of 
Methodism, those that come after us may expect to see. 
For, of Reformations there can be no end, as long as it is 
possible for the wit of man to strike out new Lights in Reli- 
gion, or to mistake Religious Whims for Gospel Truths. In 
fine, the Reformation (like all other human inventions) must 
and will be always subject and liable to perpetual variations. 
To be always passing and never consistent , has been for 
these many years, and still is, the deplorable state of The 
Eeligion of England. Now to our Morals. 

When we seriously consider the viciousness and depravity 
of the present age, we shall find but slender motives to value 
ourselves upon the mighty advantages we have gained by 
the introduction of new modes of Faith amongst us ; and as 
little reason to suppose that a multiplicity of new religions 
has contributed any thing towards the sanctity of our lives. 
In a word, we need not run after new Gospellers to be taught 
better manners. Erasmus has observed, m his time, that 
those who changed sides, and relinquished the old to em- 
brace the new Religion, were always the worse for changing. 
— " # Take a view," says he, " of this Evangelical People, 
and see whether they are less addicted to luxury, wanton- 
ness, or avarice, than those whom you detest. Bring me 
one, if you can, who by this Gospel has been reclaimed from 
drunkenness to sobriety, from fury and passion to meek- 
ness, from avarice to liberality, from reviling to well- 
speaking, from wantonness to modesty. 1 will show you 
a great many, who are become worse thereby than ever they 
were. Perhaps it is my misfortune, but 1 never yet met 
with one, who does not appear changed for the worse." 

To conclude, what great matter had K. Henry VIII. to 
boast of after all, in quality of a Reformer ? What did the 
sum total of all his Transactions as Supreme Head of the 
Church araouut to ? Why, truly, to nothing more than 
this : That he had unfortunately opened a gap to let iu 

* Vid.Eras Ep. ad V Murium Ncocotydm. A. 1529; and Sleidaris Ecforma- 
Hon, B. vi. p. Li ■ 



Supreme Head of the Church. 183 

immorality, prophaneness, and irreligion amongst his sub- 
jects ; and that he had laid a lasting* foundation to perpetu- 
ate religious discords and divisions to the latest posterity. 
All which, it seems, his Majesty had the conscience to own, 
when he made his last Speech to his Parliament. See it 
(and some reflections upon it) in the Appendix, No. XVI. 



THE DEEDS OF K. EDWARD VI. A3 SUPREME 
HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 



§ 1. — King Edward commences his Reformation with 
Preparatory Injunctions.. . What Catholic Bishops acre 
deprived, tyc. during this Reign. 

"* X he solemnities of the Coronation being pass'd, the 
Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of 
a Reformation. To the advancement of which work, the 
conjuncture seemed to be as proper as they could desire. 
For the King being of such tender age, and wholly govern- 
ed by the will of the Lord Protector, was easy to be moulded 
into any form. Wherefore it was thought fit to smooth the 
way to the intended Reformation, by setting out some Pre- 
paratory Injunctions. ' ' 

It is indeed pretended, in the Preface prefixed to them, 
that they were designed for the suppression of Idolatry and 
Superstition, and the extirpation of enormities and abuses. 
But this was a mere blind, a false alarm ; the true and real in- 
tention of the project being, to clear all Churches and Chapels 
of the offensive incumbrances of altars, and of all such valuable 
ornaments and rich utensils as had been, in former times, de- 
dicated to the service of God by their respective Donors, 
Benefactors, and Founders. In a word, costly hangings, 
silver candlesticks, and embroiderM copes and vestments, 
were the intolerable enormities which these Preparatory 
Injunction's were destinated to extirpate and reform. How 
effectually they answered this end, we shall see by and by. 
In the mean time, we propose to take into consideration the 

* Heylin's Hist. Bef. An. 1. Ed. YL 



184 The Deeds of K. Edward VI. as 

case of the Catholic Bishops, which, according to Mr. 
Strype's account of it, stood thus. 

"*This year 1549, Bonner, Bishop of London, was ex- 
amined before the Council, for several matters of contempt 
©f the King's orders, when the Archbishop [Cranmer] pro- 
nounced sentence of deprivation against him, and com*, 
initted him to the Marshalsea ; and there he abode all this 
King's -reign, 

" The next year, Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was 
deprived by Cranmer, and sent to the Tower, because he 
would not apply himself to advance the King's Majesty's 
proceedings. 

" f Anno 1550, Heath, Bishop of Worcester, was depriv- 
ed, and sent to the Fleet, for refusing to assist in compiling 
the ordinal. 

f( The same year Day, Bishop of Chichester, was deprived 
and committed to the Fleet, because he would not comply 
with the orders of the council, which were, that he should 
demolish all the altars x&ithin his diocese, and erect communion 
Jables in their stead." Mr. Collier Is a little more explicit 
in his account of this Prelate's commitment. He reports, 
that Bp. Day was obliged to appear twice before the Coun- 
cil ; and that upon his .second appearance, this was his final 
answer: — "jHe told them, he could by no means prevail 
with himself to act against his conscience. That if there 
was no help for it, bethought it a less e\il to suffer the body 
to perish, than to destroy the soul.- This answer being- 
construed contempt, he was committed to the Fleet, by or- 
der of t h e v\ h o.l e b o a r d . ' ' 

" § Anno 1551, F.esey, Bishop of Exeter, was deposed, or, 
as some say, resigned his Bishoprick, and retired from pub- 
lick business."— And notwithstanding that this Prelate, as 
Mr. Collier assures us, was no friend to the Reforma- 
tion, nevertheless, either his own good luck, or the solicita- 
tion of his good friends, procured him his quietus. And 
thus he continued unmolested to the end of this reign. 

" || Last of all, in 1552, Bishop Tonstal was committed 
prisoner to the Tower, and his estate confiscated, %for 
refusing to receive the King's injunctions," says another 

* Strype's Memorials of the Life of Archbishop Cranmer, p. ISO, 
+ Ibid. pp. 225, 226. 

+ Collier'' s Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. Book iv. p. •A06, 
§ Strype's Memorials of, etc. p. 267. 
j| Ibid. p. 288. 
ffiBafc Chron. p. 304. ; 



Supreme Head of the Church. 185 

historian. And for these weighty reasons of state, were 
the Catholic Prelates " committed to prison, and all of 
them dispossessed of their Bishopric'ks. And that which 
Was worse, the Bishopricks themselves were dispossessed of 
their revenues, in such sort, that a very small part remain'd 
to the Bishops that came after." 

Now this was the very thing our Court-Reformers aimed 
at. For what concern could they be supposed to have, for such 
as were to come after, while they, in the mean time, enjoyed 
the revenues of so many dispossessed Bishoprics, and wal- 
lowed in the riches of a plundered Church ? 

But leaving these gentry in the height of their jollity, and 
the Catholic Bishops in Umbo, let us cast an eye upon 
busy Cranmer, now strutting at the head of the Ne& 
Gospelers. 



§ 2. — Cranmer taftes out a Commission to exercise the Juris- 
diction and A uthority of an Archbishop, during the King's 
Pleasure. . . Mr. Collier's Reflections upon this Transacti- 
on ; and his Answer to Bp. Burnet'* ridiculous Parallel. 

<£ f vyRANMER being now delivered from that too awful sub- 
jection he had been held under by King Henry, resolved to 
goon more vigorously." — He had gone on vigorously enough 
against the Catholic Prelates ; but the vigour of his mind, 
together with his natural courage, seem to have deserted 
him entirely, when the Archbishop, the Primate, the Me- 
tropolitan, dwindled into the paltry Commissary. To set 
this matter in a proper light, it will be necessary to observe, 
that 

In the beginning of this reign, the Edwardian P 'relates 
were required and enjoined, by the Privy Council, to take 
out new commissions, and to hold their Bishoprics, and 
their Episcopal Jurisdiction too, during the King's plea- 
sure. 

Cranmer, says Mr. Collier, set the first precedent, and 
petitioned for a revival of his jurisdiction, rvhich he supposed 
terminated with the death of the late King. 

But Mr. Strype, in his Memorials of the Life of this 
Archbishop, appears to be more circumstantial and precise 

f Bur nd's Hist. Rcf. Vol.11, p. 25. 

B b 



186 TheDgeds of K. Edward VI. as 

in relating this momentous affair ; for which reason we 
judged it might not be improper to lay his account of it be- 
fore the Reader. 

"f One of the very first things that was done in young King 
Edward the Sixth's reign, in relation to the Church, was, 
that the Bishops, who had the care of ecclesiastical matters, 
and the souls of men, should be made to depend entirely 
Upon the King and his Council, and to be subject to suspen~ 
sion from their office, and to have their whole Episcopal 
Power taken from them at his pleasure ; which might serve 
as a bridle, in case they should oppose the proceedings of 
the Reformation. In this, I suppose, the Archbishop had 
his hand : for it was his judgment, that the exercise of all 
Episcopal Jurisdiction depended upon the Prince ; and that, 
as he gave it, so he might restrain it, at his pleasure. And 
therefore he began this matter with himself, petitioning, 
6 That as he had exercised the authority of an Archbishop 
in the reign of the former King ; so that the authority end- 
ing with his life, it would please the present King Edward 
to commit unto him that power again.' For it seemed th 2ft 
he would not act as Archbishop till he had a new commission 
-from the new King for so doing. And that this was his judg- 
ment, appeared in the first words of the commission granted 
to him : in the composing of which, I make no question he 
had his hand. ' Quando quidem omnis jurisdicendi Autho- 
ritas, at que eiiam Jurisdictio omnimoda, tarn ilia quse 
Ecclesiastica dicitur quam Specular is, a Regia Potest ci- 
te, 'velut a Supremo Capite, ac omnium Magistratuum 
infra Regnum nostrum fonte ac scaturigine, primitus eman- 
averit, &c. that is, since all authority of exercising Ju- 
risdiction, and also all kind of Jurisdiction, as well that 
which is called Ecclesiastical as Secular, originally hath 
flowed from the King's Power, as from the Supreme Head, 
and the Fountain and Source of all Magistracy within our 
Kingdom : We therefore in this part yielding to your hum- 
ble supplication, and consulting for the good of our sub- 
jects, have determined to commit our place to you, under 
the manner and form hereunder described.' And then the 
King licensed him J To ordain within his Diocese, and to 
promote and present to Ecclesiastical Benefices, and to in- 
stitute and invest; and, if occasion required, to deprive, to 
prove testaments, and the rest of the business of his Court* 

f Strype's Memorials, p. 141. 

X See a copy of Cranmer'a Ordination Faculties, in th« Appendix? 
No. XVII. 



Supreme Head of the Church, 187 

And so all the rest of bis offices were reckoned. This was 
dated Feb. 7, 1546. But yet all these things were com- 
mitted to him with a Power of revocation of the exercise of 
his authority reserved in the King, and durante beneplacito. 
Thus a formal commission was made to him : and hence 1 
find that the Archbishop, in some of his writings, is stiled, 
The Commissary of our dread Sovereign King Edward." 

Thus did the courageous D. Cranmer (Bp. Burnet's 
Athanasius) meanly submit to hold both his See and his 
Episcopal Authority during the King's pleasure. And thus 
did he resign and exchange the ancient, illustrious, and 
venerable style of Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate 
of all England, for the pitiful title of The King's Com- 
missary I 

This is Mr. Strype's account of this lamentable affair ; 
and it will not perhaps be unacceptable to the Reader, to be 
entertained with Mr. Collier's reflections upon it. 

" f That Cranmer addressed the Crown for this purpose,, 
[«. e. for a new commission] and in the form abovemention- 
ed, we may reasonably conclude, from the singularity of his 
opinion, [viz. That all manner of Authority and Jurisdic- 
tion, as well ecclesiastical as civil, is originally derived from 
the Crown.] If this assertion holds good, the power of 
the Jieys must be lodged with the secular magistrate : and 
if so, what independent right can the Bishops have for the 
exercise of their function ? How can they make any claim 
to a charter of government from our Saviour ?" 

Bp. Burnet answers, that the person was no other way 
named by the King, than as lay-patrons present to livings. — 
Burnet's Hist. Ref Vol. II. p. 218. 

" This," replies Mr. Collier, " is somewhat surprising. 
For did ever lay-patrons pretend to give a commission in 
their presentations, for the exercise of the priest's function ? 
Does the incumbent govern his cure, and execute his office, 
in the patron's name, and by virtue of his authority? If 
this cannot be made good, the case is no ways parallel. 
For the Bishops, by the Letters Patents, were to give 
orders, and execute all the other branches of their Spiritual. 
Jurisdiction, as the King's Delegates, and upon the strength 
of his Authority." 

f Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. TI. B.iv. p. 219, 



Bb 



188 The Deeds of K. Edward VI. as 



§ 3. — The Edwardian Bishops are prevailed upon, by 
Cranraer's Example, to exchange their Charter of Divine 
Institution /or Letters Patents, and to become the King^s 
Ecclesiastical Sheriffs. . . The Form of a Bishop's Letters 
Patents. 

" f A hat which made the greatest alteration, and threatened 
most danger to the State Ecclesiastical, was the Act intit- 
led, An Act for the Election of Bishops, and what seal? and 
stiles shall be used by spiritual persons, tkc. In which it 
was ordained, * That no election be made of any Bishop by 
the Dean and Chapter, but that the King 1 , by his Letters 
Patents, shall confer the same to.any person whom he shall 
think meet. — That all Processes Ecclesiastical shall be made 
in thewffmeand with the stile of the King. These likewise 
to be sealed with no other seal but the King's, or such as 
shall be authorised by him.' 

" There was, continues our Historian, in the first branch 
[of this Act] more contain'd than did appear. For it seemed 
to aim at nothing, but that the Bishops should depend 
wholly upon the King for their preferment ; yet the true drift 
of that design was, to make Deans and Chapters useless, 
and to prepare them for a dissolution. 

" By the last branch, it was plain and evident, that the 
intent of the contrivers was^ by degrees, to weaken the au- 
thority of the Episcopal Order, by rforcing them from the 
strong hold of Divine Institution, and making them no 
other than the King's ministers only ; his Ecclesiastical She- 
riffs, as a man might say, to execute his will, and disperse 
his mandates. And of this Act such use was made, that the 
Bishops of those times were not in a capacity of conferring 
Orders, but as they were thereunto impowered by Special 
Licence. The tenor whereof was in these words, to wit : 

6 The King to such a Bishop, greeting. 

' Whereas all and all manner of Jurisdiction, as well ec- 
clesiastical as civil, flows from the King, as the Supreme 
Head of ah the body, &c. We, therefore, give and grant 
unto you full power and licence (to continue during our 
good pleasure) of conferring Orders within your diocese, 
and of promoting fit persons unto Holy Orders, even to that 
of Priesthood.' 

f Heylin's Hist. Rcf. p. 51, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 189 

" Which being looked upon by Queen Mary, not only as a 
dangerous diminution of the Episcopal Power, but as like- 
wise an odious innovation in the Church, she caused this 
Act to be repealed, in the first year of her reign ; leaving 
the Bishops to depend on their former institution, and to act 
in all things which belonged to their jurisdiction, in their 
own names, and under their own seals." 

Hard fate of the Bishops of those times ! They could nei- 
ther confer Orders, nor execute any one branch of the power 
belonging to their character or functions, without an ex- 
press warrant from the chief temporal magistrate ! Their 
commissions were clogged with an odious durante benepla- 
cito ! And this mortifying clause, Quam dm bene se gesse- 
rint, was inserted in the Letters Patents that appointed them 
to be Bishops ; of which the following is a copy. 

The Form of a Bishop's Letters Patents. 

c f The King being informed of the good qualifications of 
— — — , appoints him to be a Bishop, so long as he shall 
behave himse I j well ; giving him power to ordain Ministers, 
to exercise Ecclesiastical.! urisdiction, and to do all the other 
parts of the Episcopal Function.' — All which they were to 
execute and do in the King's name and authority. 

Thus it plainly appears, that Episcopacy was actually re- 
duced, in this reign, to the nature and condition of a Patent 
Office from the Crown. Not the least shadow of Ecclesiasti- 
cal Jurisdiction, no free, and much less independent exercise 
of the Episcopal Functions was left to my Lords the Bi- 
shops In short, nothing that properly belonged to them, 
as Bishops, remained undestroyed, unless the King had re- 
solved to blot out the very name; which, at that juncture, 
was no impracticable thing. The Change of Bishops into 
superintendunts or elders, (according to the style of Geneva) 
might, and most probably would have been effected, in case 
this Prince had chanced to live but a few years longer. 



f Bw net's Hist. Ref. Vol. II. B.i. p. 218. 



\ 



190 The Deeds of K. Edward VI. a$ 



§ 4. — Of the Depredations and Ravages committed upon 
Bishoprics in the Reign of King Edward VI. 

" f As the King was plunged in debt, without being put to 
extraordinary charges, so was he decayed in his revenue, 
without selling any part of the crown lands towards the pay- 
ment of it. By the suppressing of some, and the surrendering 
of other Religious Houses, the Royal [ntrado was so much 
increased in the late King's reign, that for the better manag- 
ing of it, the King erected, first, The Court of Augmentation, 
and afterwards, The Court of Surveyors. But in a short 
time, by his own profuseness, and the avariciousness of 
this King's Ministers, it was so retrenched, that it was 
scarce able to find work enough for the Court of Exchequer. 
Whereupon followed the dissolving of the said two Courts, 
in the last Parliament of this King. Which, as it made a 
loud noise in the ears of the people, so did it put this jealou- 
sy into their minds, that if the King's lands should be thus 
daily wasted, without any recruit, he might at last prove 
burdensome to the common subject. Some course is there* 
fore to be thought on, which might pretend to an increase 
of the King's revenue. And none more easy to be compass- 
ed, than to begin with the Suppression of such Bishopricks 
said Collegiate Churches, as either lay farthest off, or might 
be best spared. 

" The Church of Durham was as liberally endowed as 
the most, and more amply privileged than the best in the 
kingdom. The Bishops thereof, by charter and long pre- 
scription, enjoying and exercising all the rights of a county 
palatine, in that large tract of ground which lies between 
the Tees and the Tyne ; the Diocese including also all 
Northumberland. — No sooner was Bishop Tonstal com- 
mitted to the Tower, but presently an eye was cast upon his 
possessions ; which questionless had followed the same for- 
tune with the rest of the Bishopricks, if one, more powerful 
than the rest, had not preserved them from being parcelled 
out, as the others were, on a strong confidence of getting 
them all to himself. 

" After this the Earl of Northumberland, to preserve him- 
self, gave unto the King the greatest part of his inheritance; 
and dying without children not long after, left his titles also 
to the King's disposing. The lands and titles being this 
fallen to the Crown, continued undisposed of till the fail of 

f Eeylin's Hist. Kef. p. 135. 



Supreme Head of the Church, 191 

the Duke of Somerset, when Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 
being 1 created Duke of Northumberland, doubted not but 
he should be able to possess himself, in short time also, of 
all the lands of that family. To which estate the Bishoprick 
of Durham, and all the lands belonging to it, would make a 
fair addition ; upon which grounds, the Bishoprick of Dur- 
ham being dissolved by Act of Parliament, under pretence 
of patching" up the King's revenue, the greatest part of the 
lands thereof were kept together, that they might serve for a 
revenue for the future Palatine. But all these projects fail- 
ed in the death of the King, and the subsequent death of 
this great Duke in the following reign of Queen Mary" 

But tho' this opulent Bishopric was providentially pre- 
served from being 'parcelled out among the great men at 
Court by one more powerful than the rest, and had, besides, 
the good luck to be most generously restored to itself 
by Queen Mary; nevertheless it did not fare so well witli 
the rest of the Episcopal Sees, which, during this King's 
reign, were most lamentably ravaged and depauperated. To 
give some instances. 

The Bishopric of Westminster was dissolved, extinguish- 
ed, and exterminated by Act of Parliament ; lhirlby, the 
first and only Bishop of this See, (after he had sat here 
about nine years) being translated to Norwich in this reign, 
and by Queen Mary to the chair of Ely. 

The Bishopric of Rochester (upon Scory's removal to 
Chichester) was enjoyed by the Crown till the death of this 
King. 

The Bishopric of Worcester was given to Hooper (now 
actually Bishop of Gloucester) in commendam, tho' this man 
was nothing more, in reality, than a mere titular commen- 
datary ; the Episcopal Revenues, in the mean time, being 
devoured by the hungry courtiers. 

The Bishopric of Bath and Wells was most wretchedly 
dilapidated and dismembered by Barlow, as D. Heylin in- 
forms us. See his History of the Reformation, p. 54. 

It would be too tedious to recount all the ravages com- 
mitted, at this time, upon other Bishoprics ; as Lichfield 
and Coventry, Lincoln, Landaff, &c. &c. And therefore 
we remit all such as are desirous of being entertained with 
a more particular account of these matters, to the above- 
mentioned Hist. Ref pp. 100, 101, 129. 



The Deeds of K.Edward VI. as 



R 5. — Of the Suppression of the Chanteries, Free-Chapels, 
Colleges, Hospitals, 8$c. with some other Instances of the 
Rapacity of the Times. . . The King^s Minority is abused, 
even to a high Degree of Sacrilege. 

We have already observed, that King Henry VIET, in his 
last Parliament, procured a grant of all the Chanteries, &c. 
in England, but that, dying soon after, there was no com- 
plete seizure made of them in his time. But this was only 
a short reprieve to them. For King Edward's ministry 
having got the power, they soon found out the means to 
execute in this, whatever destructive schemes had been left 
unfinished in the last reign ; and with keen appetites did 
they fall upon all such Chanteries, Free-Chapels, &c. as 
old King Harry had not time to carve and devour. How 
these matters were transacted, D. Heylin gives us the fol- 
lowing information. 

" f In the 27th year of King Henry the Eighth, all Chan- 
teries, Fret-Chapels, Colleges, and Hospitals, were given 
to the King. But he died before he had taken many of them 
into his possession. And the Grandees of the Court not 
being willing to lose so rich a booty, it was set on foot 
again, and carried in this present Parliament. In which 
were granted to the King all Chanteries, Colleges, Free- 
Chapels, Hospitals, Fraternities, Brotherhoods, Gilds, 
and other Promotions, (mentioned in 37 H. 8. c. 4.) with all 
their mansion-houses, manors, rents, tythes, churches, 
patronages, lands and goods, (not already seiz'd on by his 
father) which they sold at a low rate, enriched many, and 
ennobled some. And therefore made them firm in main- 
taining the change. 

" \ For the Nobility and inferior Gentry possessed of pa- 
tronages, considering how much the Lords and great men 
of the Court had improved their fortunes by the suppression 
of Chanteries and other Foundations, which had been grant- 
ed to the King, conceived themselves in a capacity to do the 
like, by taking into their hands the yearly profits of such 
benefices, of which, by law, they were only intrusted with 
the Presentations. in short, 

" § Such was the rapacity of the limes, and the unfortu- 
nateness of the King's condition, that his minority was 
abused to many acts of spoil and rapine (even to a high de- 

f Heylin? t Hist. Ref. p. 47; % Ibid. p. 5Y. § Ibid. p. 131. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 193 

gree of sacrilege) to the raking of some, and enriching of 
others ; without any manner of improvement to his own 
estate. For notwithstanding the great and almost inestim- 
able treasures, which must come in by the spoil of so many 
shrines and images, the sale of the lands belonging to 
Chanteries, Free-Chapels, Colleges, &c. and the delapidat- 
ingof the patrimony of so many BishopiHcks and Cathedral 
Churches; he was nevertheless not only plunged in debt, 
but the Crown Lands are much diminished and impaired 
since his coming to it. Besides which spoils, there were 
many other helps, and some great ones too, of keeping him 
beforehand, and full of money, had they been used to his 
advantage. 

" The lands of divers of the Halls and Companies of 
London were charged with annual pensions, for the finding 
of such lights, obits, and Chantery-Priests as were founded 
by the donors of them. For the redeeming whereof, they 
were constrained to pay twenty thousand pounds to the use 
of the King. Other vast sums likewise came to him upon 
several accounts ; yet, notwithstanding all this, he is now 
found to be much overwhelmed in debt. It must now be his 
care, and the endeavours of those that plunged him into it, 
to find the speediest way for his getting out. In order to 
which, the main engine, at this time, for the advancing 
money, was the speeding a commission into all parts of the 
realm, under pretence of selling such of the lands and 
goods of Chanteries, &c. that remain'd unsold ; but, in 
plain truth, it was to seize upon all hangings, altar-cloths, 
fronts, parafronts, copes of all sorts, with all manner of 
plate, jewels, bells and ornaments, which were to be found 
in any Cathedral or Parochial Church, to which the demo- 
lishing of the former altars, and placing the communion- 
table in the middle of the quires or chancels of every 
church (as was then most used) gave a very great hint, by 
rendering all such furniture, rich plate, and other costly 
utensils, in a manner useless. And that the business might 
be carried on with as much advantage to the King as might 
be, he gave out certain instructions under his hand, by 
which the Commissioners were to regulate themselves in 
their proceedings, to the advancement of the service. 

" Now we cannot doubt but they were punctual and exact 
in the execution, which cannot be better discerned than by 
that which is reported of their doings in all parts of the 
kingdom ; and more particularly in the Church of S. Peter 
in Westminster, more richly furnished, by reason of the 

C c 



194 The Deeds of K. Edward VI. a$ 

pomps of coronations, funerals, and such like solemnities^ 
than any other in the kingdom. Unto this Church they left 
no more than two cups with covers, all gilt ; one white sil- 
ver pot, three hearse-cloths, twelve cushions, one carpet for 
the table, eight stall-cloths for the quire, three pulpit-cloths, 
nine little carpets for the dean's stall, two table-cloths. The 
rest of the rich furniture, massy plate, and whatever else 
was of any value (which questionless must amount to a very 
great sum) was seiz'd on by the said Commissioners. 
The like was done generally in all other parts of the 
realm. 

** But notwithstanding this great care of the ^King on the 
one side, and the double diligence of the Commissioners on 
the other, the booty did not prove so* great as was expected. 
In all great fairs and markets, there are some forestallers y 
who get the best pennyworths to themselves, and suffer not 
the richest and most gainful commodities to be openly sold. 
And so it was here : for there were some who were as much 
beforehand with the Commissioners in embezzling the said 
plate, jewels, and other furniture, as the Commissioners 
did intend to be with the King, in keeping always most 
part of it unto themselves. For when th? Commissioners 
eame to execute their powers in their several circuits, they 
neither could discover all, or recover much of* that which 
had been made away : some things being utterly embezzled 
by persons not responsible ; in which case the King, as the 
Commissioners, was to lose his right. But more was con- 
cealed by persons not to be discovered ; who had so cun- 
ningly carried on the stealthy that there was no tracing of 
their footsteps. And some there were, who being known to 
have such goods in their possession, conceived themselves 
to be too great to be called in question, and were connived 
at willingly by those that were but their equals, and either 
were or meant to be, offenders in the same kind. So that, 
altho' some profit was hereby raised to the King r s Exche- 
quer, yet the far greatest part of theprey came into other 
hands. Insomuch that many private men's parlours were 
hung with altar-cloths, their tables and beds covered with 
copes instead of carpets and coverlets ; and many made 
carousing cups of the sacred chalices ; as once Belshazzar 
celebrated his drunken feasts in the sanctified vessels ofth& 
temple. 

" It was a sorry house, and not worth the naming, which 
had not something of this furniture in it ; though it were 
only a fair large cushion, to adorn their windows, or to make> 



Supreme Head of the Church. 1 95 

their chairs appear to have somewhat in them of a chair of 
state ! 

" Yet how contemptible were these trappings, in compa- 
rison of those vast sums of money which were made of jew- 
els, plate, and cloth of tissue; either conveyed beyond the 
■seas, or sold at home, and good lands purchased with th« 
money. Nothing the more blessed to the posterity of them 
that bought them, for being purchased with the consecrated 
Treasures of so many Churches." 



§ f$.—An Ejectment is served upon Images by an Order of 
the Privy Council. . . The pretended Reason for this Order 
is said to have been to prevent Idolatrous Worship.. . Mr. 
Collier clears the Papists fas he calls them J from the 
heavy Imputation of Pagan Idolatry.. .The true Reasons 
for destroying Images and Altars are assigned by D. 
Heylin, viz. Covetousness, and the Consideration of 
Profit., .A short Digression, wherein Bucer's Objection 
against a Mediator of Intercession is fairly and fully an~ 
swered by Mr, Collier. 

J_ he Churches being thus most devoutly plundered by the 
Commissioners of ail their jewels and gold, silver crosses, 
candlesticks, censers, chalices, ready money, copes of gold 
and silver tissue, and all other officiating habits and orna- 
mental furniture of great value ; the next important business 
was, to reform the Altars too, upon the very same plan. And 
this was no sooner proposed, than resolved on nem. con. 
But Images happening to stand unluckily in the way, the 
first attack was made upon them by an order of the Privy 
Council, directed to Are Lib p.. Cranmer, as follows. 

* We have thought good to signify unto you, that his 
Highnesses pleasure, with the advice and consent of Us, 
the Lord Protector, and the rest of the Council, is, that 
immediately upon the sight hereof, you shall give order, 
that all Images remaining in any Church within your Dio- 
cese be taken away ; and also by your letters shall signify 
to the rest of the Bishops this his Highness's pleasured 
JStat. 3 and 4. E. 6. c. 10. 

Now the pretended reason for issuing out these orders 
nvas, to prevent the people from abusing the Images (as it 
was rumoured) to superstition and idolatry. Meanwhile the 
3iew-gospel preachers, both in their pulpits and elsewhere, 

Cc2 



196 The Deeds of K. Edward VI. as 

represented and decried the venerable Temples and Altars 
of antiquity as places and things contaminated with idolatry, 
gross, abominable, heathenish idolatry, if not something 
worse. But to this popular clamour Mr. Collier very pro- 
perly replies, and as justly observes, that 

" f How criminal soever the Worship of Images, and the 
Adoration of the Host, may be represented, it certainly falls 
far short of the malignity of Pagan Idolatry : for the hea- 
thens addressed scandalous beings, and worshipped devils. 
Their religious rites were savage and licentious, they sacri- 
ficed their children to their pretended deities, and impurity 
and debauch were part of their religion. Now since nothing 
of this kind can be objected to the Papists, they ought not 
i.o be blackened beyond equity and truth, ranged with hea- 
thens and idolaters, and made as bad as the Canaanites in. 
the Old Testament." 

But to come at the true reasons why the above orders were 
issued from the Privy Council, to demolish Images and 
Altars, we must apply to D. Heylin. And first, with re- 
gard to tiie demolition of Images, he frankly confesses, 

" % It may well be thought that covetousness spur'd on this 
business more than zeal ; there being none of the Images so 
poor and mean, the spoil whereof would not afford some gold 
and silver, if not jewels also. "—Then, as to the subversion 
of the Altars, the same Author informs us how that 

"§The great business of this year [1550] was the taking 
down of Altars in many places by the public authority; which 
in some few had formerly been pulled down by tfie irregular for- 
wardness of the common people. The principal motive where- 
unto was, in the first place, the opinion of some dislikes that 
had been taken by Calvin against the Liturgy ; and the desire 
of those of the Zuinglian faction to reduce this Church to 
the nakedness and simplicity of those transmarine Churches 
which followed the Helvetian or Calvinian forms. For the 
advancement of which work, it had been preached by Hooper 
before the King, about the beginning of this year, 4 that it 
would be very well, that it might please magistrates to turn 
the altars into tables, according to the first institution of 
Christ; and thereby to takeaway the false persuasion of the 
people which they have of sacrifices to be done upon altars. 
Because, as long as Altars remain, both the ignorant people, 
and ignorant and evil-persuaded priest, will dream always of 

+ Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II, B. iv. p. 457. 

J Hey tin's Hut] Ecf. p. 56, § Ibid, p, 95, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 197 

sacrifice? This was enough to put the thoughts of the altera- 
tion into the heads of some of the great men about the Court, 
who thereby promised themselves no small hopes of profit, 
by disfurnishing the Altars of the hangings, palls, plate, 
and other rich utensils, which every parish, more or less, 
had provided for them. And that this consideration might 
prevail upon them, as much as any other (if perchance not 
more) may be collected from an enquiry made about two 
years after, in which it ?vas to be interrogated : What jew- 
els, gold and silver, or silver crosses, candlesticks, censers, 
chalices, copes and other vestments, were then remaining in 
any of the Cathedral or Parochial Churches, or otherwise 
had been embezzled or taken away? The leaving of one 
chalice to every church, with a cloth or covering for the 
communion-table, being thought sufficient." 

Thus where covetonsness spurred on the Reformation, and 
where the consideration of profit (more than any other) pre- 
dominated and prevailed, what wonder to see Churches dis- 
furnished, and Altars (after having been reduced to a most 
contemptible state of poverty and nakedness) at last thrown 
down to the ground ? 

We shall close up this section with what, we presume, 
may be allowed (on the account of its affinity with the pre- 
ceding subject) a pertinent digression ; wherein we beg 
leave to entertain the Reader with Martin B ulcer's argu- 
ment against a Mediator of Intercession, and Mr. Collier's 
answer to it. 

Bucer objects, that our Saviour commands us to address 
to God the Father in his name; that he is said to be our 
Friest and Mediator ; and that the angel that appeared to 
Cornelius did not tell him, that either himself, or any other 
angel, offered his prayers and alms to God Almighty,— 
Mr. Collier's reply. 

" f Notwithstanding this reasoning, it is certain angels 
have part of our Saviour's kingdom assign'd them ; and 
that they are concerned in the presidency and guardianship 
of the faithful, [Acts xii. 15.] Thus we are taught by the 
author to the Hebrews, that they are all ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister for them, who shall be heirs of sal- 
vation, [Heb. i. 14.] ', and may it not be part of their em- 
ployment, to inspect the behaviour, to report the devotions, 
and to intercede in behalf of their charge ? If 'tis said that 
God Almighty is omnipresent, and needs no information, to 
this it may be answered, he is omnipotent too, and therefore 
t Collier's Eccl Hist, Vol.11. B. iv. p. 298. 



198 The Deeds of K. Edward VI. as 

has no need of the ministry of angels to assist him in his go- 
vernment, and to protect his Church ; and yet the Scripture 
acquaints us, that he is pleased to make use of them for this 
last purpose. 'Tis hard for us to pronounce upon the extent 
of an angel's commission, or to what charitable offices their 
own benevolence may carry them. 'Tis true, S. Paul men- 
tions one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ 
Jesus. £1 Tim. ii. 5.] But then by the next verse 'tis plain 
he means a Mediator of Redemption, and not a Mediator of 
Intercession, so far as to exclude all others. For every one 
who solicits his neighbour's happiness, and recommends him 
to God in his devotions, mav be said to be a Mediator in a 
lower sense. Now such instances of charity are not only 
lawful, but the duty of one Christian towards another. And 
that an angel is barred the liberty of such friendly applica- 
tions, is more than Bucer can prove," — or any body else, we 
presume. 



§ 7. — Some Account of King Edward's New Ordinal, and 
Ms XLH. Articles of Religion. 



•a 1 



We have done with Bishoprics, Cathedrals, Chanteries, 
Altars, and Images, and as the scene changes, so the Rea- 
der may expect to be entertained with some fine new things, 
and with such rarities as had never been seen before in this 
island 1 

Now the first new thing that presents itself to the obser- 
vation of the curious, is King Edward'' s New Ordinal. An 
affair that took up much time in the adjustment. But great 
matters are seldom brought to perfection on a sudden. No 
wonder, then, if this great work should appear, in the 
records of history, to have been three years and upwards 
upon the anvil. For King Henry the Eighth died January 
8, 1547 : and from that time till April 1, 1550, the Zuin- 
glians sat brooding upon their Ordinal. — Tantae molis 
eratl 

At last, however, it is recommended to the Public by an 
Act of Parliament. 

"*The Act being short," says Mr. Collier, " and not 
printed in the Statutes at large, I shall transcribe it for the 
Reader : ' Forasmuch as Concord and Unity to be had with- 

* Collier's Eccl Hist. Vol. IT. B. iv. p. 188.— See also Stat. 3 and 4. E. 6. 
c. 12, and Hey 1. Hist. Ref. p. 82. 



Supreme Head of the C?iurck. 199 

in the King's Majesty's dominions, it is requisite to have 
one uniform fashion and manner for making and consecrat- 
ing of Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, or Minis- 
ters of the Church. Be it therefore enacted by the King's 
Highness, with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
poral, and the Commons in this present Parliament assem- 
bled, and by the authority of the same, that such form and 
manner of making and consecrating of Archbishops, Bishops, 
Priests, Deacons, and other Ministers of the Church, as by 
six Prelates, and six other men of this realm, learned in the 
law, by the King's Majesty to be appointed and assigned, 
or by the most number of them, shall be devised for that 
purpose, and set forth under the Great Seal of England, 
before the first day of April next coming, shall, by vertue 
of this present Act, be lawfully exercised and used, and 
none other ; any statute, or law, or usage to the contrary, ra 
any wise notwithstanding. 7 n 

Thus, whatever may be objected against the validity of 
King Edward's new Fashions, or Manners, or Forms of 
Ordination (of which more hereafter) at least, it cannot be 
denied but they were established and supported by the 
authority of an Act of Parliament, A formality that was 
wanting to his New Articles of Religion; as will appear from 
the following authentic account of them. 

Let it then be remembered, that our busy faith-refiners in 
the Court of King Edward were, for the first four years of 
his reign, so zealously intent upon their prey, that matters 
of doctrine, and discipline too, seemed to have been most 
supinely neglected, if not entirely forgotten. In the mean 
time, great disorders discovered themselves in the celebrati- 
on of the divine service, great differences arose amongst the 
officiating ministers, and as great irreverence was practis- 
ed and propagated among the people ; many of them not 
knowing well what to believe, or what to practise. How- 
ever, so it happened at last, that after the making of estates, 
(the first, to be sure, and, perhaps the principal thing to be 
considered) they began to turn their thoughts towards the 
great business of making Articles of Religion. Better late 
than never ,• tho' D. Heylin is of opinion, that this famous 
job had been too long deferred. 

< e f For till the fifth year of this reign, nothing had been 
concluded positively and dogmatically in points of doctrine, 
hwt as they were to be collected from the Homilies and the 

i Heylin's Hist, pp.106, 107. 



200 The Transactions of K. Edward VL as 

public Liturgy ; and these but few, in reference to the ma- 
ny controversies which Were to be maintained against the 
sectaries of that age. Many disorders having grown up in 
this little time, in officiating the Liturgy, the Vestures of the 
Church, and the habit of churchmen, begun by Calvin, and 
prosecuted by Hooper ; and unto these, the change of Altars 
into Tables gave no small increase ; as well by reason of 
some differences which grew amongst the ministers them- 
selves upon that occasion, as in regard of the irreverence 
which it bred in the people ; to whom it made the Sacrament 
to appear less venerable than before it did. — It was therefore 
thought necessary to compose a Book of Articles, in which 
should be contained The common Principles of the Christian 
Faith. 

" For the better performing of this work, Melancthon*s 
company and assistance had been long desired. That he 
held correspondence with the King and Archbishop Cran- 
mer, appears by his Epistles of the years 1549, 1550, 1551. 
But that he came not over, as was expected, must be imput- 
ed either to our home-bred troubles, or the great sickness of 
this year, or the death of the Duke of Somerset, upon whom 
he did most rely. Buttho' Erasmus was dead, and Melanc~ 
thon absent, yet were they to be found, both alive and pre- 
sent, in their writings. By which, together with the Au- 
gustan Confession, the composers of these Articles were 
much directed." 

With all these helps from abroad, and some assistance at 
home, Cranmer makes a shift to finish his new System of 
Faith, and then confidently recommends it to the Public, 
as a thing agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned 
men in a convocation, to put an end to divisions (forsooth) 
and to procure consent amongst the professors of the New 
Religion: which, in reality, is much the same thing as to 
attempt an impossibility. For in vain do we expect to find 
any tolerable agreement, unanimity, or consent among the 
Reformed ; when every man of them, by the first Principle 
of the Reformation, may and does challenge the privilege 
and liberty to expound the Credenda of his erring Church, 
as well as the Scripture, according to his own private fancy 
and imagination. Nor is there a man amongst them all, but 
thinks he has a right, in both cases, to abound in his own 
sense. But to return to the Articles. 

Cranmer having rigged them out in as decent a garb as 
his head could devise, they were permitted to make their 
appearance in public, under the following magnificent title : 



Supreme Head of the Church.. 201 

Artieuli de quibus in Synodo Lond. A. D. 1552, ad tollen- 
dam opinionum Dissensionem, et consensum verse Religionis 
jirmandum, inter Episcopos et alios eruditos viros convene- 
rat, Regia Authoritate in lucem editi. That is : 'Articles 
agreed upon by the Bishops and other learned men, in a 
convocation at London, A. D. 1552, to take away diversity 
of opinions, and to establish the consent of true religion: 
published by the King's Authority.' 

That these articles were published by royal authority, we 
can easily grant ; but that they were the result of a convo- 
cation, is a circumstance which, we think, we have good 
reasons to deny. 

First, because that Mr. Fuller, after a careful and atten- 
tive perusal of the Convocation Records, declares he can 
find no such agreement of Bishops and learned men about 
the Articles, no Synodal Approbation of them, or any thing 
like it. " # As for the records of this convocation," say9 
he, " they are but one degree above blanks, scarce affording 
the names of the clerks assembled therein. Indeed, they 
had no commission from the King to meddle with Church 
business ; and every convocation is in itself born both deaf 
and dumb ; so that it can neither hear complaints in reli- 
gion, nor speak in redress thereof, till first Ephetha, be 
thou opened, be pronounced unto it by commission from 
royal authority. Now the true reason why the King would 
pot intrust the diffusive body of the convocation with a 
power to meddle with matters of religion, was a just jea- 
lousy which he had of the ill affection of the major part 
thereof; who under a fair kind of Protestant profession, had 
the rotten core of Romish superstition. It was therefore 
conceived safer for the King to rely on the ability and fide- 
lity of some select confidents, cordial to the cause of [the 
new] religion, than to adventure the same to be discussed 
and decided by a suspicious convocation. However, this 
barren convocation is entitled the parent of those Articles 
of Religion (forty- two in number) which are printed with 
this Preface, Articulo de guibus, &c. as is recited before. 
With these [articles] was bound a f Catechism, younger in 
age (as bearing date of the next year) but of the same ex- 
traction, relating to the convocation, as author thereof. 

* Fuller's Ch. Hist. B. VII. p. 420. 
f This Catechism was originally a German performance. It waB published 
first in High Dutch : then translated into Latin,£y Justus Jonas, junior, and in 
to Englishby Cranmer. 

Pi 



<202 the Deeds of K. Edward VI. as 

Indeed, it was first compiled (as appears in the King's 
Patent prefixed) by a single divine (character' d pious and 
learned) but afterwards perused and allowed by the Bishops 
and other learned men, and, by royal authority, commended 
to all subjects, commanded to all schoolmasters, to teach 
their scholars. Yet very few in the convocation ever saw it, 
and much less explicitly consented thereunto. But these 
had formerly (it seems) passed over their power (I should 
be thankful to him. who would produce the original instru- 
ment thereof ) to select divines, appointed by the King. In 
which sense they may be said to have done it themselves by 
their delegates, to whom they had deputed their authority. 
A case not so clear, but that it. occasioned a cavil at the 
next convocation, in the first of Queen Mary ; when the 
Papists therein assembled renounced the legality of any 

such former transaction. The case was this : D. Weston, 

Dean of Westminster, at the meeting of the first convocati- 
on under Queen Mary (in which he was chose prolocutor) 
after some preludiai questions, proceeded to touch upon the 
CatecMsm, and the Articles bound vp with it. He denied 
the authority of the title, and charged the book with false 
doctrine and heresy; At their next meeting, after two 
days adjournment, the prolocutor procured the subscrip- 
tions of the House against the Catechism and Articles, 
positively denying the said Book's being set forth by the 
assent of the convocation."— See Collier 's Eccl. Hist. VoL 
IL B. iv. pp. 354 and 368. 

Secondly, Archbp, Cranmer, upon his examination be- 
fore the Queen's Commissioners at Oxford, confessed his 
being the author, both of the Catechism and Articles, if Fojc 
is to be believed. f As for the Catechism and Book of 
Articles, he granted the same to be his doings." — Jets and 
Mon. p. 1704. 

Thirdly, Mr. Strype, in his Memorials of the Life of this 
Archbishop, assures us, that " The forty-two Articles were 
composed by Cranmer and Ridley." — Strype* s Memorials, 
Book II. p. 272. 

Fourthly, D. Heylin observes,, " fThat tho' a Parliament 
was held at this time, and that this Parliament had pass- 
ed several acts which concerned Church matters ; as, 
An Act for Uniformity of Divine Service; an Act for the 
Confirmation of the Book of Ordination, &c. ; yet neither 
in this Parliament, nor in that which followed, is there so 

,v* 

f Keylin's Hist. Ref. pp. 25 and 121. 



Supreme Head of the CJwrch. 203 

much as the least syllable which reflecteth this way, or 
meddleth at all with the Book of Articles." 

Now, from these concessions, the conclusion appears to 
be undeniable, that the fatuous forty-two Articles of the re. 
ligion of this reign can neither be accounted synodal nor 
parliamentary. Not synodal, because it was not thought 
expedient, or even safe, to have them discussed mid decided 
by a suspicious convocation. Not parliamentary , because 
the Parliament never meddled at all with the Book of Ar- 
ticles. 

In fine, if it is supposable that King Edward's Articles 
of Religion contained the common Principles of the Christian 
Faith, may it not then be allowable to ask, if it was justi- 
fiable in Queen Elizabeth, and who gave her authority to 
chop and change the said principles, to curtail their number, 
and to reduce them from forty -two to thirty -nine f 



§ 8.— Some Account of a new Liturgy or Common Prayer- 
book, published by King Edward.. . Refections on the Act 
of Parliament by which it was authorised, 

<f fnow the time draws on for the putting forth the New 
Liturgy, which differed little in the main (no, not so much 
as in the Canon of the Mass) from the Latin service." 

The main difference, however, seems to have consisted in 
the Communion's being appointed, by Act of Parliament, to 
he administered to the people in both kinds, in direct con- 
tradiction to the second of King Henry's famous six Articles, 
which strenuously asserts and maintains, that communion 
in both kinds is not necessary, by the law of God, to all 
people. But so fluctuating and unsteady was the state of 
religion in those unhappy days of disorder and confusion, 
that what appeared vecessary in one reign, was voted to be 
quite the reverse in the next. Nor were the reformers, per- 
haps, in any one thing more inconsistent with themselves, 
than in their putting forth the new Liturgy. 

Now, in order to clear the way for the introduction of it, 
it was thought expedient previously to prohibit, abolish, and 
extinguish for ever 9 all the ancient Liturgic Offices of all de- 

f Hcylin's Hist. Ref. p. 72. 

Dd2 



201 Tlie Deeds of K. Edward VI. as 

nominations : all which are particularly specified in tke fe4~ 
lowing Act of Parliament. 

« Whereas in the former Service Book are things corrupt, 
untrue, vain, and superstitious, be it therefore enacted, that alt 
books called Antiphoners, Missales, Grailes, Processionales, 
Manueles, Legendes, Pies, Portuasses, Primers in Latin and 
English, Couchers, Journalles, Ordinalles, or other books 
or wrytings whatsoever, heretofore used for the service of 
the Church, wry ten or printed in the English or Latin 
tongue, other than such as are or shall be set forth by the 
King's Majesty, shall be, by authority of this present Act, 
clearly and utterly abolished, extinguished, and forbidden 
for ever, to be used or kept in this realm, or elsewhere, 
within any of the King's dominions.' — Vid. Stat. 3 and 4. 
E. 6. c. 10. 

Thus the old Service-Books, as soon as condemned, were 
ordered immediately for execution, which was every where 
to be ushered in with the subsequent formalities. The con- 
demned criminals were commanded to be delivered into safe 
custody of the mayor, bailiffs, constables, or churchwar- 
dens, in their respective townships, who (within three 
months after they came into their hands) were to surrender 
them to the Archbishop, Bishop, Chancellor, or Commissa- 
ry of the Diocese, in order to be either openly burnt, or 
otherwise defaced and destroyed ; and that, in case any of 
the persons abovementioned reserved or secreted any of the 
condemned books, and did not bring them in to the Archbi- 
shop, Bishop, &c. they were, for the first offence, to for- 
feit ten shillings ; four pounds for the second ; and for the 
third, to suffer imprisonment at the King's pleasure. And 
if the Archbishop, Bishops, &c. failed to execute the Act, 
and did not burn, deface, and destroy the said books with- 
in forty days after they received them, then were they to for- 
feit forty pounds ; half of which sum was for the King, and 
the other moiety for the informer. 

" X 'Tis almost a pity," says Mr. Collier, " there was not 
a clause in this Act to allow the Bishops the liberty of re- 
serving a copy of all these censured books, and lodging them 
in their cathedral libraries. Thus the form and distinction 
of the old offices might have been better known, and some 
valuable curiosities remain'd."— — But since the old offices 
are irretrievably lost, we shall endeavour to entertain our 

% Collier's Bed. Zfof.Yol. II. Book iv. p. 307. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 205 

deader with a detail of such ancient Customs and Ceremo- 
nies as were retained in the first English Common Prayer- 
Book. 

In officiating this New Liturgy, the Bishops were direct- 
ed by the Rubrics to perform the Divine Service in their 
Crosses, the Priests in White Albs, with a Vestment or 
Cope, the Deacons in Jibs with Tunicles. The IntroiU 
and Gloria in excelsis were said in English, as also the 
Nicene Creed ; excepting that, in the ninth Article, (but 
for what reason I can't imagine) the word holy is omitted. 
The Prefaces (proper and common), Sanctus, Agnus Dei, 
and the Pater noster, were to be recited in English. The 
Rubric also directs and enjoins the putting a little pure and 
clean water to the wine in the Chalice; and the bread was 
ordered to be unleavened, and round as formerly, but with- 
out any print upon it. See the Appendix No. XVI 1 1. 

Prayer for the Dead was likewise kept up in this Liturgy, 
as appears from the following words of a prayer in the Com- 
munion-Office : We commend unto thy mercy, O L^rd, all 
thy servants which are departed hence from us with the sigti 
of faith, and now do rest in the sleep of peace. Grant unto 
them, we beseech thee, mercy and everlasting peace. 

Auricular Confession was permitted to such as chose it; 
and the use of Chrism arid Extreme Unction was, as yet, 
retained, though with this difference from the Catholic 
practice, that the sick person was to be anointed with the 
Sign of the Cross on the forehead or breast only. The form 
of prayer made use of upon this occasion (which, for bre- 
vity's sake, we omit) may be seen in Mr. Collier's Ecvl. 
Hist. Vol 11. p. 257. 

Conclude we this section with a reflection or two upon the 
Act of Parliament by which this first Liturgy of Edward 
VI. is authorised and recommended to the use of the Pub* 
lie. And, 

First, " % By the Act of Parliament which confirmed the 
same, it was declared to have been done b y the special aid 
of the Holy Ghost. But Calvin was resolved to think other- 
wise of it. In his letter to Cranmer he is more particular, 
and tells him in plain terms, ' That in the language of this 
Church, as then it stood, there remained a whole mass of 
Popery, which did not only blemish, but almost destroy God's 
publick worship.' § Not content with this, he writes a very 

t'HeyhrisHkt. Presb. pp, 237, 238. § Idem, p. 72. 



206 The Deeds of K. Edward VL as 

long letter to the Protector, in which he descends more 
particularly to the English Liturgy ; in the canvassing 
whereof he excepted against Commemoration of the Dead, 
as also against Chrism and Extreme Unction. And then 
he makes it his advice, ' That all these ceremonies should 
be abrogated." ' And thus did Calvin most unmerci- 
fully censure and condemn the English Liturgy, notwith- 
standing the boasted assistance of the H. Ghost in the com- 
piling of it. 

Secondly, in the same Act of Parliament, the New Litur- 
gy is said to have been drawn up according to the usages of 
the Primitive Church. And, perhaps, it may be admitted 
to be, at least, so far conformable to the usage of the Primi- 
tive Church, as it retains a likeness or affinity with the Latin 
Service, from whence it was purloined, and which, at its 
first appearance in the world, it very much resembled. But 
this resemblance is in great danger of being obliterated by 
length of time. For King Edward's first essay of a Litur- 
gy in English, has undergone so many reformations and re- 
finements (and is still threatened with more) that it would 
be no great wonder, if it should abate something of the pri- 
mitiveness of its lustre in almost every edition, and as visi- 
bly depart from the ancient form of worship established and 
used in the Primitive Church. 



§ 9. — Calvin procures a second Edition of King Edward'.? 
Liturgy or Common Prayer-Booh, and censures it with a 
great deal of Freedom. 

U X One of the main matters which was now brought into 
consideration, was, the reviewing of the Liturgy ; for the 
removing of such offences as had been taken by Calvin 
and his followers, at some parts thereof, and so far prevail- 
ed in the two first years, that in the convocation which was 
begun in the former year, the first debate amongst the Pre- 
lates was of such doubts as had arisen about some things 
contained in the Common Prayer-Book. Upon this debate, 
there was a new Book of Common-Prayer set forth. 

" § And thereupon we may conclude, that the first Li- 

+ Htylin y % Hist. Ref. p. 107. 

§ His History of the Presbyterians, pp. 239, 240. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 207 

turgy was discontinued, and the second superinduced up- 
on it, after this review, to give satisfaction to Calvin's 
cavils." 

The Act of Parliament which authorised this new edition, 
is somewhat too remarkable to be omitted. It addresses the 
Public as follows : 

' Whereas there hath been a very godly order set forth 
by the authority of Parliament, for the Common-Prayer and 
Administration of the Sacraments, agreeable to the Word 
of God and the Primitive Church, very comfortable to all 
good people, and most profitable to the estate of the realm, 
&c. And yet this notwithstanding, a great number of 
people do wilfully and damnably, before Almighty God, 
abstain and refuse to come to their parish churches, where 
Common-Prayer, &c. is used upon Sundays, &c. And 
therefore the King's most excellent Majesty, with the 
assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament 
assembled, and by the authority of the same, hath caused 
the aforesaid Order of Common-Prayer, intitled, 7 he Book 
of Common- Prayer, to be faithfully and godly perused, 
and made fully perfect, &c.'«— See Stat. 5 and 6. E. 6. 

"f Upon the setting forth this book, there appeared no 
small alterations in the outward solemnities of the divine 
service, to which the people had been formerly so long ac- 
customed. For by the rubrick of the Book, no Copes or 
other Vestments were required, but the Surplice only. The 
Bishops were necessitated to forbear their Crosses, &c." — 
And here it may not be improper to take notice, that even 
this second edition of King Edward^ Common Prayer- 
Book, with no small alterations, was still unpleasing and 
unpalatable to the grand Reformer of Geneva; as appears 
from the freedom of his censure, and the haughty manner of 
expressing his disapprobation of it. 

* | In Liturgia Anglicana, qualem mihi describitis, mul- 
tas video tolerabiles inept ias — 1 cannot but observe many to- 
lerable fooleries in the English Liturgy, such as you de- 
scribe it to me.' And then he goes on complaining, 'That 
it wanted much of that purity which was to be desired in it ; 
and that it contained mauy relieks of the dre*>s of Popery ; 
and finally, that it behoved the learned, godly, and grave 
ministers of Christ, to set forth something mure refined 

from filth and rustiness.' " r Jhis answer," continues our 

Historian, " so prevailed upon all his followers, that they 

f Hetjlin's Hist. Ref. p. 121. J Heylin's Hist, of the Prcsb. p. 240, 



SOS The Deeds of K. Edward VI. as 

who sometime had approved, did now dislike the English 
Liturgy ; and they who at first had conceived & dislike of it, 
did afterwards grow into an open detestation of it." — And 
this dislike and detestation of the Common Prayer- Book (as 
a relic of Popery) seems to have been carefully preserved 
and industriously propagated among the Dissenting Protes- 
tants, from Mr. Calvin down to the present time. 



§ 10.— The Fruits of K. Edward's Reformation. 

A his King's Reformation, almost as soon as planted, be 
gan to fructify. And these were some of the principal 
fruits it produced : 1. Confusion in the performance of the 
Divine Service : and, 2. A most scandalous abuse and con- 
tempt of the Blessed Sacrament, which was, at this time, 
reproached and stigmatized with many odious names. Of the 
first D. iieylin gives us the following account. 

** J Notwithstanding his [tire King's] great care to set 
forth one uniform order of administring the holy Communion 
in both kinds, yet so it happened, that thro' the perverse 
obstinacy and froward dissembling of many of the inferior 
Priests and Ministers of eathedral and other churches of 
this realm, there did arise a marvellous schism and variety 
oi fashions in celebrating the Communion Service, and admi- 
nistration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremo- 
nies of the Church. For some zealously allowing the King's 
proceedings, did gladly follow the orders thereof; and 
others, tho' not so willingly, admitting them, did yet dissem- 
blingly and patchingly use some part of them; but many 
causelessly contemning them all, would still continue in their 
former Popery." 

. F. Parsons, in his Three Conversions of England, is a 
iittle more explicit in his description of that confusion and 
disorder which innovation had, about this time, introduced 
into churches. His words are these : "What a. Babylonia I 
confusion, in the two first years of this reign, ensued, upon 
the innovation in all churches, is wonderful to recount. For 
some Priests said the Latin Mass, some the English com- 
munion ; some both, some neither ; some half of the one, 
and half of the other. It was very ordinary to say the 
Introitus and Confiteor in English, and the Collects and 

I 'Berlin's Hist BeJ. p. 63. 



Supreme Head of the Church, 209 

and some other parts in Latin; after that again, the Epis- 
tles and Gospels in English ; and then the Canon of the 
Mass in Latin ; and lastly, the Benediction and last Gospel 
in English. But that which was of more importance and 
impiety, some did consecrate bread and wine, others did 
not, but would tell the people before-hand, that they would 
not conse ate, but restore to them their bread and wine 
back aga «; only adding to it the Church's Benediction. 
And those that did consecrate, did consecrate in divers 
forms: some a^ud, some in secret: some in one form of 
words, some in another. And after Consecration, some 
held up the Host to be adored, after the old fashion, and 
some did not. And of those that were present, some did 
kneel down and adore, others did shut their eyes, others 
turned away their faces, others ran out of the church, crying 

Idolatry /" See this passage not inelegantly versified by 

Mr. Ward, in his Eng. lief, beginning with these words : 

" At Wmdsor, Ned and Somerset 

With Latimer and Cranmer met, &c." 

See also K. Edward 1 ^ Journal, preserved by Burnet in his 
Hist. JRef. where this famous Windsor consultation is par- 
ticularly described. [Vol. II. B. i.] 

But a confused medley of Church-service was not the only 
disconvenience of the times. For now the most sacred and 
solemn mysteries of the Christian Religion began to be most 
impiously and prophanely ridiculed and abused : and in do- 
ing this, the bigotted reformers pushed their blind zeal to a 
very scandalous length. 

" * In some places they ran to an extreme of prophane- 
ness. The Holy Eucharist was mentioned with disregard. 
The consecrated elements were thrown out of the Church, 
together with many other instances of irreligious outrage. 
— And particularlyf, it is observed in the Register-Book of 
Petworth, that many at this time affirmed, that the most 
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar was of little worth ; so that, 
in many places, it was irreverently use^d, and cast out of 
the Church, and many other great enormities committed.— 
This prodigious growth of irreverence and prophaneness, at 
long run, occasioned the enacting of the following penal 
statute. 

* Whereas some arrogant and contentious people have 
not only disputed and reasoned unreverently of the most 

* Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. B.iv. p. 251,. 
f Reylin's Hist. Ref. p. 67. 

Ke 



2 LO The Deeds of K. Edward VI. fyc. 

high mystery, but also in their sermons, preachings, read- 
ings, lectures, communications, arguments, rhimes, songs, 
plays, or jests, name and call it by such vile and unseemly 
words as Christian ears do abhor to hear rehearsed. For 
the reformation whereof it is enacted by the King's High- 
ness, with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 
and of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, 
and by the authority of the same, that whatsoever person or 
persons, from and after the first day of May next coming, 
shall deprave, despise, or contemn the said most Blessed 
Sacrament, by any contemptuous words, or by any words 
of depraving, despising, or reviling ; or whatsoever person 
or persons shall advisedly, in any other way, contemn, 
despise, or revile the said most Blessed Sacrament, contra- 
ry to the effects and declaration abovesaid, that then he 
and they shall suffer imprisonment of their bodies, and 
shall make fine and ransom at the King's will and pleasure.' 
Stat. 1. E.6. c.l. 

"t And to say the truth, it was but time that some pro- 
vision should be made to suppress that irreverence and pro- 
phaneness with which the Blessed Sacrament was at that 
time handled, by too many of those who seem'd most igno- 
rantly zealous of reformation. For whereas the Sacrament 
was in those times delivered unto each communicant in a 
small round wafer, called by the name of Saci amentum Al- 
taris, or, The Blessed Sacrament of the Altar ; and that 
such parts thereof as were reserved from time to time were 
hang'd up over the altar in a pix or box, the zealous ones, 
in hatred to the Church of Rome, reproached it by the odious 
names of Jack in a Box, Round Robin, Sacrament of the 
Halter, and other names, so unbecoming the mouths of 
Christians, that they were never taken up by the Turks or 
Infidels ! — O tempora ! O mores!" 

f Heyluvs Hist, Ref. p. 48, 49. 



211 



THE EXPLOITS OF Q. ELIZABETH AS SUPREME 
HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 



§ \.—At the End of the first Session of Q. Elizabeth'* first 
Parliament j all the Catholic Bishops (one only excepted) 
are deprived, for refusing the Oath of Supremacy.. .And 
what became of them f 

JL he next day after the meeting of the Parliament, the 
Convocation likewise met ; in which D. Bonner, Bp. of 
London, (the See of Canterbury being vacant by the death 
of Cardinal Pole) presided, and D. Harpsfield was chose 
prolocutor. The only business of note done in this Convo- 
cation, was the drawing up of a set of articles, (five in num- 
ber) which Mr. Fuller has preserved in his Church History, 
B. ix. pp. 55, 56. 

These articles, says D. Heylin, were presented by Bon- 
ner to the hands of the Lord Keeper Bacon ; but little notice 
was taken of them, either in the House of Lords or by the 
Queen, who was now, it seems, absolutely determined to 
effect a change of religion at all events. And this favourite 
point she had the address to carry (tho* but by a small ma- 
jority of votes) in her first Parliament. 

At the close of the first session, the Catholic Bishops 
were all (except one) deprived. "fFor being called by 
certain Lords of the Council, they were required to take 
the Oath of Supremacy. Kitchin of Landajf on\y takes it ; 
who having formerly submitted to every change, resolved to 
shew himself no changling, in not conforming to the plea- 
sure of the higher powers. By all the rest it was refused. 
Whereupon they were deprived of their Bishopricks ;" and 
disposed of in the following manner. 

Edmund Bonner, Bp. of London. His deprivation was 
soon followed by his commitment to the Marshalsta. 
He died a close prisoner. 

The five following Bishops, viz. John White, Bp. of Win- 
chester ; Thomas ll'atson, Bp. of Lincoln ; On:en 

f Heylin's Hist. Rcf. p. 1U. 

Ee2 



212 The Exploits djNt Elizabeth a$ 

Oglethorpe, Bp. of Carlisle ; Ralph Bain, Bp. of 
Lichfield and Coventry; and Gilbert Bourn, Bp. of 
Bath and Wells, died in durance. 

Cuthbert Tonstal, Bp. of Durham, and Thomas Thirlby i 
Bp. of .£/#, died prisoners at Lambeth. 

Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, and David Pool, Bp. 
of Peterborough, died prisoners at large. 

James Turberville, Bp. of Exeter, met with the same usage. 

Cuthbert Scot, Bp. of Chester, escaped from confinement, 
as we have elsewhere observed, and died beyond sea. 

Richard Pate, (or Pates), Bp. of Worcester, made his 
escape from the place of his imprisonment; to which he 
prefer' d the more eligible alternative, a voluntary ba- 
nishment. In 1545 (Decemb. 13) the Council of 
Trent was convened by Pope Paul the Third : and the 
next year after (viz. 1546) we meet with our Prelate 
\Richardus Patus, Anglus, Wigorniensis Antistes~\ 
amongst the Tridentine Fathers. With them he sate, 
till the Council of Trent was removed to Bononia. To 
this city Bp. Pate followed the Pope's Legates, by 
whom he was, soon after, dispatched upon business of 
importance to Rome, but never returned more to the 

Council. Mr. D d therefore is quite mistaken, when 

he tells us, that Bp. Pate was at the closing of the Coun- 
cil of Trent. For it plainly appears, from the Catalo- 
gus Patrum, (or the names of the subscribing Prelates) 
that there was but one English Bishop at the close of 
that celebrated Council, and that was 

Thomas Goldwel for Godwel) Bp. of S. Asaph. He was 
born, as Mr. Fuller informs us, at Goldwell, in the pa- 
rish of Streatchart, in Kent ; and perhaps he might 
derive his surname from the place of his birth. He was, 
by profession, a Clericus Regularis, or Regular Priest, 
as Cardinal Pallavicini informs us. And Mr. Addison 
iu his Travels thro 1 Italy, takes notice, that at Ravenna 
" there is a Convent of Theatins, where, among the 
pictures of several famous men of their order, there is 
one with this inscription : P. D. Thomas GouldvellusEp. 
As is - Trid no - Concilia contra Hsereticos et in An glia contra 
Elisabet. Fidel Confessor conspicuus." Addison's 

Remarks, pp. 215, 216. To avoid Q. Elizabeth's 

persecution, Bp. Goldwel transported himself out of 
the kingdom, repaired to Rome, aud from thence to 
that memorable Council, which was now removed back 
again from Bononia, and resumed at Trent. His arri>. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 213 

val at Trent {an. 1562) was very acceptable to the Fa- 
thers, by whom he was received with no small demon- 
strations of joy, as Card. Pallavicini assures us. 

\Fuit etiam Dignitatis et Lsetiiioe accessio ex Adventu 
Thonue Goduelli Episcopi S. Asaji in Anglia, ex Ordine 
Regularium Clericorum. [Card. Palla. Hint. Con. 
Trid. p. 240.] —And here he sate till the end of that 
Council, which terminated December 4, 1563. After 
the Council of Trent was brought to a happy conclu- 
on, our Prelate set his hand to the Tridentine definiti- 
ons and decrees. See the above-mentioned Catalogue 
Patrum, where you will find the name, surname, na- 
tive country, and title, expressly subscribed by 
every Bishop then and there present. And, amongst 
the rest of the subscribers, we meet with Thomas God- 
uelus, Anglus, Episcopus Asaphen. That he died in 
Italy historians agree : and, perhaps, he might choose 
to end his days among those of his order at Ravenna, 
But this is not so certain. For, to confess the truth, 
we can neither find the precise year when, nor the place 
where, this worthy Prelate died. 



§2. — By Virtue of the Queen's Injunctions, Churches are 
stript of their Altars, and Images are removed, and 
coarsely used. . . Mr. Collier's Thoughts upon this Exploit : 
aud his Observation upon the Bishops' Address to the 
Queen, for the Removal of the Images. 

After the example of her father and brother, the Queen 
begins her Reformation with injunctions : and the design of 
them was to remove and reform both altars and images 
clear out of sight, and, by degrees out oimind too ; for fear 
lest the former should put folks in mind of Sacrifices, and 
the latter should make them think on the Mysteries of the 
Christian Religion, the sufferings of Christ, or the Martyr- 
dom of his Saints. And here I cannot help taking notice, 
that the demolishing of the altars was styled, in the silly 
cant of those times, the pulling up the Pope's fences, and 
cultivating the vineyard of the Lord! 

As to images, as soon as they fell into the hands of their 
enemies, no quarter was to be expected. They were hacked 
and hewed, broken and burnt, with all the indications of 
contempt, derision, and seeming detestation ! 



214 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

But give me leave to observe, that if the pulling down of 
an emperor's statue has heretofore been condemned (and 
punished too) as a mutiny against the government, and an 
insult upon temporal majesty, then, surely, to maltreat the 
pious representatives of the world's Redeemer and King of 
eternal Glory in the most spiteful and malicious manner 
that can well be imagined, must, without doubt, amount to a 
very high degree of impiety. Mr. Collier is of this opinion ; 
and all unbigotted and unprejudiced men, we presume, will 
think as he does. 

" * To treat images coarsely, and burn them, looks like 
an affront to those they represent, and is altogether unbe- 
coming Christians. To burn the figure of the cross, and 
especially that of our Saviour, is, to speak softly, a horrid 
prophanation ; and, if we may reason from such indignities 
done to men, must be superlatively wicked." 

But the Bishops, it seems, were of a different opinion. 
They produced a legion of arguments in favour and defence 
of these horrid projanations. They addressed the Queen 
more than once upon the subject of images, and thought the 
time long, before she vouchsafed to commit hostilities 
against them. And in their second address, they make a 
show of arguing from scripture-texts ; but so lamentably 
misapplied, that we do not think it worth our while to trou- 
ble our reader with them. Their main argument, however, 
must not be overlooked. It is drawn from Deut. xxvii. 
where a curse is denounced against those who made an image 
an abomination to the Lord, and put it in a secret place; 
which they (ridiculous enough) expounded of some chapels 
in private houses. But to this Mr. Collier answers properly 
enough, by observing, that 

" f The dispensations of the Jewish and Christian Reli- 
gion are different in many points, and therefore there's no 
arguing from the one to the other. There's no arguing, I say, 
either from precept or precedent, unless where the grounds 
are the same ; but this cannot be affirmed in the present 
case. For from this prohibition, we can't infer the unlaw- 
fulness of making a figure of our Blessed Saviour. And that 
the worship, and not the use of images, was altogether for- 
bidden the Jews, may be collected from aSWowo/z's carving 
cherubims upon the walls of the temple, and embellishing 
the molten sea with oxen and lions. As for the luster and 
pomp in things in religion, 'tis far from any dangerous 

* Collier's Ecd. Hist Vol. II. B, y\. p. 465, f Ibid, p, 435, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 215 

amusement. Had this been an exceptionable circumstance, 
the temple-service at Jerusalem, of God's own institution, 
would not have been carried on with so much magnificence 
andexpence." 

Now, tho' there is nothing criminal in the sober use of 
images, yet D. Burnet is positive, that " f These reasons of 
the Bishops (weak as they are) prevailed with the Queen to 
put it in her Injunctions, to remove all Images out of 
Churches. " 

And, indeed, this removal was executed with a venge- 
ance ! No image could stand before the Puritanic Bigots in 
any shape ! No, not in the shape of Christ crucified! And 
when there were no more images to batter down, they de- 
faced the monuments of the dead, and destroyed a prodigi- 
ous number of noble church windows, (which, for beauty 
and magnificence, were hardly to be matched in any part of 
the Christian world) only because they happened, most of 
them, to be curiously embellished and adorned with histori- 
cal representations of scripture occurrences. 



§ 3. — Q. Elizabeth's Motives for enjoining the Observation 
of Fasting Days ; and Mr. Collier's Remarks upon them. 
. . Her Apostolical Commission. 

The next thing that occurs to be observed in Q. Elizabeth's 
conduct, as Head of the Church, is an Order of her Coun- 
cil, setting forth, that " J The Queen's Majesty of late, en- 
tering into some consideration, how that the observation of 
embering and fish days is not so duly looked unto as it 
ought to be, and is requisite in policy, for the maintenance 
of mariners and fishermen, hath thought convenient, for 
that cause, first in her Highness's own houshold, to give 
strict charge unto the officers for the observation of them. 
And it is ordered, that they shall be more carefully seen un- 
to and continued than heretofore they have been.— And far- 
ther it is declared, that the same is not required for any lik- 
ing of Popish Ceremonies heretofore used (which utterly are 
detested) but only to maintain the mariners and the navy of 
this land, by setting men a fishing, &c."— Upon which Mr. 
Collier makes the following grave remarks. 

+ Burnet's Hist. Bef. Vol. II. p. 298. 

t Collier's Ecd. Hist. Vol.11. B. vi. pp. 557,559. 



216 The Exploits of Q. Elisabeth as 

" By this order it appears, the days of abstinence are de- 
clared to be kept only for promoting the fishery, and the en- 
couragement of seamen: Now, with submission, to lay the 
whole stress of emberiny and abstinence upon reasons of 
state, is somewhat singular. For to say nothing of ember- 
weeks, the fast of Lent, and those of Fridays, reach up to 
the earliest ages of Christianity. Now this restraint of ap- 
petite was always imposed with a prospect upon the other 
world: 'twas enjoin'd to reduce the senses, and make the 
mind more absolute. And is it not somewhat a misfortune, 
that the Apostles' Canons, the authority of the Fathers, and 
the practice of the Primitive Church, should be struck out 
of all consideration ? And must all this discipline be only for 
the benefit of navigation ? Have we no sins to fast for, no 
temperance to guard ? Are we not bound to distinguish 
times, upon Spiritual Motives, and prepare for the solemni- 
ties of religion ?" 

Having thus entertained our reader with Q. Elizabeth's 
spiritual and truly pious motives to enjoin the observation of 
Jish-days, we shall close this section with a word or two rela* 
tive to her Apostolical Commission, 

" f On the 20th of March the Queen made a speech to 
both Houses at the prorogation of Parliament. ' She takes 
notice, that since God had made her an over-ruler of the 
Church, her negligence could not be excused, if any schism 
or heresy was connived at. She grants there may be some 
misbehaviour and omission amongst the body of the Clergy; 
and that such miscarriage is common to all considerable of- 
fices. — All which, continues her Majesty, if you, my Lords 
of the Clergy, donotamend, I mean to depose you.' — Thus 
the Queen delivers herself, as if she had an Apostolical 
Commission within her dominions, and her power was para- 
mount to the Episcopal College." ; 

And well might the Queen deliver herself in this manner! 
She was persuaded by her flattering court-sycophants, that 
her power was paramount to the Episcopal Colleye : and she 
acted up to this persuasion in several instances. Add to 
this, that the Apostolical Commission which she challenged 
svi thin her dominions, was most signally displayed in the 
case of D. Matthew Parker, when Elizabeth adventured to 
dispense both with his own and his consecrators' defects, 
irregularities, disabilities, &c. in the most ample manner 
and form. And as this is one of the most remarkable ex^ 

f Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol.11. B. vii. p. 59o. 



Supreme Head of the Church, 217 

ploits of our great Over-ruler of the Church, we shall en- 
deavour, with all the brevity the subject will admit of, to 
lay it fairly before the reader. 



§ 4 . — Prelim in art/ Observa tions. 

JL he design of this Work not being Controversy, we shall 
endeavour to dispatch, as briefly as possible, the important 
affair of the Consecration of D. Matthew Parker, the first 
Archbishop of Canterbury ordained a la Protestante. His 
Ordination is indeed an exploit, which no one that treats of 
Q. Elizabeth's Ecclesiastical Transactions can forbear tak- 
ing notice of, upon several accounts ; but chiefly because 
it places her Majesty's Apostolical Commission in a very con- 
spicuous point of light. But, before we enter directly upon 
our subject, we beg leave to introduce it with the following 
preludial observations. 

1. This is far from being a new dispute : on the contrary, 
it may, properly enough, be said to be as old as the Refor- 
mation. The famous Bishop Bonner was one of the first that 
begun it, and upon the following occasion. — By virtue of an 
Act of Parliament (5. Eliz. I.) the Protestant Bishops were 
impowered to tender the Supremacy Oath to any ecclesias- 
tical or other persons within their respective dioceses. Horn, 
(at that time styled Bp. of Winchester) taking the advan- 
tage of this Act, tendered the oath to Bishop Bonner, then 
a prisoner in the Marshalsea, which is in the Diocese of 
Winchester. Bonner refused the oath, and was indicted in 
the King's Bench for recusancy. At his appearance there, he 
confessed the fact, and traversed the indictment ; and upon 
his motion for council, the famous Ploy den and Wray (after- 
wards Lord Chief Justice) were assigned him. He pleaded, 
that Horn was no Bishop when he tendered him the Oath ; 
and backed his plea with the following reasons : " Because 
Horn was neither elected nor consecrated pursuant to the 
Canons of the Catholic Church, nor the laws and statutes of 
this realm;" and then quotes Stat. 25. H. 8. c. 20. The 
suit, however, was kept depending, and every body in sus- 
pense, till the meeting of the Parliament, (8 Eliz.) when 
Horn and his colleagues were maCtet! tO tt StgfjOflg, by 
virtue of a statute for that purpose made and provided. 
And this gave the Catholics a handle to style them Parlia- 
mentary Bishops. Thus the matter dropt, and Bonner, ob- 

Ff 



218 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

noxious as he was to the Government, was never after mo- 
lested about oaths. He had done Home's business effectu- 
ally ; and it was not thought safe to trust the issue of it even 
to a Protestant Jury. — — If this account should be suspect- 
ed of partiality, we have Mr. Fuller, a Protestant Historian, 
ready to vouch for the truth of it in every particular. 

* Anno 1566, 7 Eliz. " In this year began the suit 

between Robert Horn, Bp. of Winchester, and Edmund 
Bonner, Bishop of London, on this occasion. All Bishops 
were empowered, by the Stat. & Eliz. to tender the Oath of 
Supremacy to all persons living within their dioceses. Now 
Bishop Bonner was within the Diocese of Winchester, (as- 
being a prisoner in the Marshalsea, in Southwark) to whom 
Horn offered this Oath, and he refused the taking thereof. 
Being indicted r he appear'd, confess'd the fact, but denied 
himself culpable ; and intending to traverse the indictment^ 
desired that council might be assigned him. Sir Robert 
Cateline, then Chief Justice, granted his motion, and no 
ineauer than Ployden, that eminent lawyer, Christopher 

JVray, and — Lovelace, were deputed his council. 

The main matter, which was so much debated amongst all 
the Judges in the Lord Cateline' $ chambers, was this : 
'Whether Bonner could give in evidence of that issue 
that he had pleaded of Not Guilty, that Horn, Bp. of 
Winchester, was not a Bishop Tempore oblationis 
Sacramenti, at the time wherein he tendered the Oath 
to Bonner. 7 
" And it was resolved by them all, that if the truth of the 
matter was so indeed, that he might give that in evidence 
upon that issue, and that the jury might try, whether he 
was then a Bishop or no. Whilst this suit yet depended, 
the Queen called a Parliament, (anno 1567, 8 Eliz. which 
put a period to the controversy, and cleared the legality of 
Home's Episcopacy, in a Statute enacting, 'That all persons 
that have been or shall be made, ordered, or consecrate Arch- 
bishops, Bishops, &c. alter the form and order prescribed in 
the said order and form how Archbishops, Bishops, &c. 
should be consecrated, made, and ordered, be in very deed, 
and also by authority hereof, tnaCttD tO bz r and shall be, 
Archbishops, Bishops, &c. any statute, law, canon, or 
other thing to the contrary notwithstanding.' ','* 

2. From the time of Q. Elizabeth down to the present, 
it has ever been, and still is the constant and prevailing opi- 

J Fuller's Ch. Hist.Bookix. pp. 79, 80. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 219 

Kiion among the Catholics, that Matthew Parker was conse- 
crated, (if 1 may be allowed to make use of so improper a 
term) at the Nag's Head, in Cheapside, John Scory then 
and there, laying* the Bible on his head, and pronouncing 
the following uncouth form of words : Take thou authority 
to preach the word of God sincerely. 

3. Anno Domini 1613, (and not before) the Catholics 
were astonished at the publication of certain Records of 
Lambeth ; tho' D. Stapleton long before, and in the reign of 
Q. Elizabeth, had put this peremptory question to Messieurs 
Jewel and Horn, Who gave you orders ? To which not one 
word of answer was ever returned by either of them ! No 
appeal to the Lambeth-Hecords .' — However, Bp. Bramhall, 
in his consecration and succession of Protestant Bishops jus- 
tified, (p. 112), replies, that "the reason why Bp. Jewel 
and Bp. Horn did not cite these records was, because they 
had no need to cite them." What ! no need to cite them, 
even when they were expressly called upon to answer, and 
challenged to discover, declare, and pronounce, who gave 
them orders ? No need to cite an ordination upon record, if 
then it was recorded ? But alas ! the true reason why they 
did not cite the records of Lambeth was, not because they 
had no need so to do, but because they could not do it. It 
was impossible to be done. It was impossible to cite a 
register, before it had a being ! And the Catholics insist 
upon it, that the Lambeth- Records never saw the light till 
the days of the famous recorder Mason. 

4. Bramhall (p. 113) has the vanity to imagine he has 
confuted the Nag's Head Ordination with the following di- 
lemma. 

"Either the Roman Catholic writers, of those days were 
false to their own interest, to smother a thing which (if it 
had been true) had been so much to their advantage : or the 
Nag's head Ordination was altogether unknown and un- 
heard of in those days ; which is most certain." But how 
easily is this argument answered, by retorting it upon its 
author. 

* Either the Protestant writers of those days were false to 
their own interest, to smother a thing which (if it had been 
true) had been so much to their advantage : or the Lambeth- 
Register was altogether unknown and unheard of in those 
days ; which is most certain.' 

5. The Catholics ask, if it can be made appear, from any 
registry or court of faculties, that Barlow (whom Mason 
supposes to have been the principal consecrator at Lambeth) 

Ff2 



220 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 



was ever a truly consecrated Bishop ? — Bramhall replies : 
" That registry where he [Barlow] was consecrated, is not 

so easily found. But all the other acts do appear in their 

proper courts," (p. 213.) An insipid answer ! To which 
he subjoins, (p. 214) the following concession : " Neither 
doth his [Barlow's] consecration concern us so much.— There 
were three consecrators (which is the canonical number) 
besides him," — — But this is as doubtful as the other. And 
therefore, 

6. " Before we proceed farther, it must be observed, what 
a lame cause this of the consecration of Parker is, in all 
respects. — He [Barlow] to whom Parker is presented to be 

vu«A consecrated,^never consecrated himself that can be proved, 
~^~ and most likely never was. Again, when the great cham- 
pions Mason and Bramhall, after all their struggle, cannot 
make that point out, they fly to another refuge, and tell us, 
that there were three consecrators besides, and that this is 
the canonical number. But here we find another, (viz. 
tSodgskins) not rightly named in the original record : so that 
here is another doubt ; and if this hold, they fail of their ca- 
nonical number, even according to their own account. But 
be that as it may, if three be the canonical number for others, 
it is certain it is not the legal number for an Archbishop, 
when an Archbishop is not one, as is plain in Stat, 25. H. 8. 
c. 20. So that they do deceitfully in that, and Parker 
therefore could be no legal Archbishop." — Mr, Stevens % 
(a P. M.) in his Gr. Question. 

N. B. The Stat, to which we are referred is the fol- 
lowing : 

' It was ordered by K. Henri/ VIII. [an. reg. 25.] that 
an Archbishop should not be consecrated but by an Archbi- 
shop and two Bishops ; or by four Bishops, in case an 
Archbishop was wanting.' — See Fullers Church History, 
Book IX. p. 61. 

7. Bramhall (p. 83.) informs us, that the Queen issued 
out two commissions (tho* Mason can find but one) for the 
consecrating of D. Parker. " The former dated the 9th of 
September, 1559, and directed to 

Cuthbett, Bp. of Durham, 
Gilbert, Bp. of Bath, 
David, Bp. of Peterborough, 
Antony, Bp. of Landaff, 
William Barlow, Bp. and 
John Scory, Bp. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 221 

" Now if any man desires a reason why the first commis- 
sion was never executed, the best account I can give him is 
this ; that it was directed to six Bishops, without an [aut 
minus, or at least lour of you.] So as if one of these six 
were sick, or absent, or refused, the rest could not proceed 
to consecrate. And that some of them did refuse, I am 
very apt to believe, because three of them, not long after, 
were deprived." But this is misrepresenting matter of fact. 
For the three recusant Catholic Bishops [viz. Tonstal, 
Bourn, and Pool] were both deprived and imprisoned, some 
months before the consecration of Parker was attempted, 
for refusing the Oath of Supremacy ; as plainly appears 
from Stones Annals. " In the month of July," says our 
Annalist, " the old Bishops of England, then living, were 
called and examined by certain of the Queen's Majesty's 
Council, where the Bishops of York, Ely, and London, with 
others, to the number of thirteen or fourteen, for refusing to 
take the Oath touching the Queen's Supremacy, and other 
articles, were deprived from their Bishopricks." — Thus 
Stow ad an. ] Eliz. But to return to Bramhall. 

The first commission, he owns, was never executed; but 
then (to mend the matter) he pretends to have found a second 
commission, directed to 

Antony, Bp. oiLandaff; 

William Barlow, formerly Bp. of Bath, now of Chiches* 
ter, elect; 

Miles Coverdale, formerly Bp. of Exeter ; 

Johnhcory, Bp. of Chichester, now of Hereford, elect; 

Richard, Suffragan oi Bedford ; 

John, Suffragan of Thetford ; 

John Bale, Suffragan of (Jssory, in Ireland, 

Where note, 1. " That the old Bishop of Landaff ap- 
peared not at the consecration, terrified (say the Papists) 
by Bonner's threats."— Ful. Ch. Hist. Book IX. p. 61. 

Note 2. That the two commissions (to be seen in Brum. 
pp. 83 and 86) are much the same in substance, and differ 
principally in this, that the latter concludes with a supplen- 
tes ; in virtue whereof, the Queen, by \\ev Supreme Authority 
Royal, supplies and dispenses with all defects, inabilities, 
&c. in the consecrators, &c. 

Now, if any man desires a reason why the clause Sup- 
plentes was not inserted in the first commission, he must be 
told, that such a clause would have been both ridiculous and 
impertinent; there being a sufficient number of Catholic 
Bishops in that list, whose episcopal character was unques- 



222 The Exploits of Elizabeth as 

tionable ; which is more than can be said in behalf of any 
one of those (excepting the first) that are nominated in the 
second commission. For which reason the Queen refused 
them the honour to assist at her coronation, as Mr. Collier 
observes. "*The reader," says he, " may possibly be at a 
loss, why the Queen risqued her being refused at the coro- 
nation by so many Bishops of the Roman persuasion : for 
were not Barlow, Scory, and Coverdate living ? Were not 
these three all hearty in the Reformation r Why then was 
not the setting the crown on her head offer'd to one of 
these ? To this it may be answered, that these three 
Bishops were then actually deprived : and the process being 

not reversed, their character might be questionable." 

And was not their character in the very same questi- 
onable situation at the time of Parker's suppos'd conse- 
cration ? 

In a word, though Elizabeth scorned to have the Crown 
of England set upon her head by miconsecrated hands, ne- 
vertheless she commissioned those very hands to execute a 
much more important business, viz. tlte Ordination of an 
Archbishop of Canterbury. 

8. The validity of Parker's Ordination can never be 
proved from the Lambeth -Register only, even supposing it 
to be authentic. For may not an invalid Ordination be regis- 
tered ? Were not several invalid consecrations carefully re- 
gistered long before Parker's was thought of ? Strype, by 
examining the Canterbury-Register, has found out the year 
and the day of the month when Ridley, Farrcr, Poynet, 
Hooper, Scory, Coverdale, Taylor, and Hurley were conse- 
crated, as he calls it. Yet none of these were acknowledg- 
ed by the Catholics in Queen Mary's time (or e\er since) to 
have been canonically and validly ordained. It is therefore 
one thing to prove the validity of an Ordination ; it is ano- 
ther thing, to chronicle it : and more than this, nothing is 
attempted in Mason's Register. Like other common Chro- 
nicles, it only exhibits the year of our Lord, the day of the 
month, (a circumstance wherein Protestants are not as yet 
agreed) the names of the consecrators, their apparel, and the 
form made use of (as supposed) upon that occasion. To 
these our trifling Leptologist adds a long suite or train of 
impertinent circumstances, which add not the least grain of 
weight to the validation or sufficiency of Parker's Ordi- 
nation. So that it signifies very little in the main, whe- 
ther what the ordainers did to D. Parker was performed in a 
* Collier's Eccl, JIist.Yo\. II. p. 412. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 223 

chapel or at a tavern ; in Cheapside, or at Lambeth, For, 
if either the form of Ordination was invalid, or the Ordainers 
themselves were disqualified for that function, Parker's 
consecration is still a losing card, notwithstanding its being 
registered. And the Catholics insist upon it, that the vali- 
dity of the English Episcopal Ordinations can never be de- 
monstratively proved from the lame authority of a suspected 
Chronicle, wherein is recorded a disputed fact. 

9. The Catholics seem to be convinced, that Parker's 
Ordination was not only invalid, but illegal too. And this 
they prove, from the circumstance of his being ordained 
contrary to the larvs in full force and vigour at the time of 
his supposed Ordination, wheresoever or by whomsoever if. 
was attempted. For Queen Mary's laws were not repealed 
till six years after Parker's turn was served, i. e. not till 
the 8th of Eliz. whereas he is said to have been ordained 
anno 2 Elizab. — See Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 121. 

And here we think proper to put an end to our Preliminary 
Observations. What we have to add to them, shall be com- 
prised under the following heads. And we propose, 1. To 
give the reader a brief Historical Account of this important 
affair. 2. To inquire into the Qualifications of Parker's 
Consecrators. 3. To consider the Form by which the said 
Parker was consecrated. 4. To discover by what Authori- 
ty the Deficiencies in this Consecration were supplied. 5. To 
answer the most material Objections, 



§5.-^4 brief Historical Account of this important 

Affair. 

Upon the defection of this island from the See Apostolic, 
in the reign of King Henry VIII. when the Supreme Ec- 
clesiastical Power over this National Church was translated 
from the Pope of Pome to the King of Great Britain; and 
when no English Prelate was allowed to take the Oath of 
Canonical Obedience to his Holiness, all Ordinations con- 
ferred at that juncture, and in such circumstances, were by 
the Catholics accounted uncanonical and schismatical ; and 
consequently, with regard to Jurisdiction, entirely void ; 
yet few, I believe, ever questioned their validity. It is cer- 
tain that King Henry VIII. made no great alterations in 
the public Service of the Church : for if we except some 
few deletions (such as expunging S. Thomas of Canterbu- 



224 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

rifs office, and the offices of some other saints, which, by the 
King's injunctions, were forbid to be recited, and his blot- 
ting the Pope's name out of those collects wherein he was 
usually prayed for) the rest of the Missal remained in statu 
quo. So likewise did the Roman Pontifical and the Ritual 
continue unaltered and un reformed ; and consequently, the 
old Form of Ordination maintain'd its ground tilt the death 
of this Monarch. But, 

Upon King Edward's accession, the face of the Church 
was entirely changed. His ministry immediately extermi- 
nated and extinguished the Catholic Ordinal, to make room 
for a new one. Of which, however, the Catholics had so 
mean an opinion, that such as were ordained according to the 
form devised and prescribed by K. Edward VI. were then, 
and have ever since been, looked upon by them as persons 
advanced to H. Orders not only uncanonically, but invalid- 
ly ; and for these reasons : 

First, because Holy Orders were not esteemed or re- 
garded by the Zuinglio-Calvinists of this reign as a sacra- 
inent, but only as a mere extrinsical denomination, form, or 
formality, (call it which you will) of appointing ministers to 
officiate publicly. And Cranmer himself was clearly of opi- 
nion, that election or appointment to the ministry was quite 
sufficient to make a Bishop or a Priest, without the formali- 
ty of Ordination. See the App. No. XIX. 

Secondly, because all power, both spiritual and temporal, 
was held to be derived from the civil magistrate, and parti- 
cularly from the King. 

Thirdly, because all the Bishops of this reign were oblig- 
ed to take out commissions from his Majesty, to ordain and 
perform the rest of their Episcopal Functions ; and all this 
only durante beneplacito Regis. 

Fourthly, because those that were advanced to the 
Priesthood, according to the New Form of Ordination, were 
not invested with any power to consecrate the Holy Eu- 
charist, which even BramJiall himself, (p. 226), acknow- 
ledges to be a power which Priests ought to have. Add to 
this, that the word Priest is not so much as mentioned in 
King Edward's Form of Ordination. 

And thus was the Priesthood completely degraded by the 
secular power, and the Reformed Church of England by 
consequence unchurched from the beginning. For a church 
that cannot be, as S. Jerome observes, which has no 
Priests in it, Ecclesia non est quse non hahet Sacerdotes, 
S. Hier. ad Lucif.— ~ And, That cannot be calVd a Church, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 225 

says the holy Martyr Ignatius, where these are wanting, 
Xwp/V tW«v iwAKvpU 8 Haheircti. S. Ign. Ep. ad Tral. 

In the reign of Queen Mary, the whole legislative power 
of this realm, in Parliament assembled, solemnly declared 
King Edward's Bishops to have been and to be invalidly 
ordained. This is confessed by D. Heylin. "f Hooper, of 
Gloucester, was commanded to attend the Lords of the 
Council on the 22d of August, and committed prisoner not 
long after, was outed of his Bishoprick immediately on the 
ending of the Parliament, in which all consecrations were 
declared to be void and null which had been made according 
to the Ordinal of King Edward the Sixth" 

In the reign of Q. Elizabeth, the Catholics looked upon 
Parkers ordination (and look upon it at this day) to be, 
and to have been, bothillegal and invalid. Illegal, because 
contrary to the laws, actually unrepealed and in full force 
at the time of his supposed consecration : and invalid, from 
the want of abilities in the consecrators, and from a defective 
form pronounced by them on this occasion. Both which 
particulars shall be more distinctly considered hereafter. 

In the reign of King James the First, the reformed 
Prelates of England began to make a mighty pother and 
noise about the validity of their ordinations forsooth ; pre- 
tending, that the celebrated Matthew Parker had been con- 
secrated with great solemnity at Lambeth : and to make 
good this pretension, Mr. Mason, by direction of Archbp. 
Abbott, obtruded upon the public his Lambeth Record, as 
he calls it. But, from the numerous inconsistencies, ana- 
chronisms, &c. &c. that appear upon the face of it, the 
Catholics are induced to pronounce it a spurious instru- 
ment. 



§ 6.— Some Account ofParker^ Consecrators. 

XV 

* f ith regard to the persons mentioned in Q. Elizabeth 's 
second commission, D. Heylin observes, that " J The 
lirst and two last [i. e. Antony Kitchin, the Suffragan of 
Jhetford, and Bale] either hindered by sickness, or some 
other lawful impediment, were not in a condition to attend 
the service, which, notwithstanding, was performed by the 

f Heylinh Hist. Ref. p. 38. t J&ttf. P- **»* 

Gg 



226 The Exploits ef Q. Elizabeth as* 

other four, [viz. Barlow, Scory, Coverdale, and Hodg* 
sMns.] But whether these men were duly qualified to per- 
form the important service of consecrating an Archbishop, is 
a point which we are now about to consider. We shall ex- 
amine them all four distinctly and separately, beginning 
with the principal consecrator. 

William Barlow, 

1. " [t is a wonderful thing," says my Author, C( by 
what chance or providence it happen'd, that Barlow's conse- 
cration, who was the principal actor in this [of Parser's] 
should no where appear, nor any positive proof of it be 
found, in more than fourscore years since it was first 
questioned, b^ all the search that could be made by so 
many curious, learned, and industrious persons, as Mr. 
Mason, employed by the Archbishop, and all the assistants 
he had in his time, whose book was printed in 1613, and 
again, with additions, in 1625 and 1638 ; B'p. Bramhall, 
and all the assistance he could procure in his time, about the 
year 1657 ; D. Burnet, encouraged by the Parliament, in 
1679, and all the helps and many assistants he had ; and 
the indefatigable Mr. Wharton, who had corrected and 
discovered so many faults, oversights and mistakes in others, 
besides many others," [it is, I say, a wonderful thing, that 
notwithstanding all this prodigious search, it should no 
where appear] " that he [Barloiv] was ever consecrated 
at all. 

H Mason and Bramhall take much pains to prove it by 
circumstances and probabilities, for that all things were 
done for him, and to him, and by him, that belong to 
a true and compleat Bishop, except only that of consecra- 
tion ; —especially from the restitution of his temporalities, 
which they would have us believe is always after consecra- 
tion. But whatever it ought to be, either by law or custom, 
it was not then always so observed ; as before in the case of 
Siohesley, Bp. of London, who had his temporalities July 
14, 1430, and was not consecrated till November 27th after. 
And since twice in the case of Bonner, who, elected Bp. of 
Hereford, had restitution of his temporalities to his proc- 
tor, while he himself was yet beyond sea ; and afterwards 
elected Bp. of London^ had his temporalities Nov. 18, 1539, 
and yet was not consecrated till April 4, 1540. 

" Nor is it more strange, that of all the acts necessary 
for that purpose, the Consecration should be omitted, espe- 



Supreme Head of the Church. 227 

eially at a time when it was set so light by, than that of all 
the records and entries of those acts, that only of the Con- 
secration, if there had been any, should be wanting", when 
all the other acts do appear in their proper courts, as # ram- 
hall tells us "---Great Quest, p. 4. 

To evade these difficulties, which cannot easrly ;be an- 
swered, Bramhallis forced to have recourse to casualties. 
He wisely supposes, p. 184, that^re, or thieves, or some 
$uch casualty, might destroy or purloin the record. But 
pray, Sir, Where, when, and how, did that destructive 
conflagration happen? And, if it happened at all, how 
came that single act to perish in the flames, when all the 
rest appear in their proper courts f As to the thief, all we 
can say of him is, that he must have been uncommonly clever 
and adroit, to purloin a testimonial, or nim a Consecration- 
Act, which, in all probability, never existed in rerum 
natura ! 

Add to this the authority of Mr. Strype, who, in the Pre^ 
face to his Memorials of the Life of Archbishop Crannies 
assures us, that he has taken particular care to set down, 
under every year, what Bishops, diocesan and suffragan, 
were consecrated in the province of Canterbury. And from 
his extract of the Canterbury- Register, we have seemingly 
a tolerable account of Episcopal Ordinations, from Cranmer 
down to Harley, the last of the Edwardian Prelates : To 
give some instances : " Hodgskins," he tells us, a was 
consecrated December the 9th, 1537. But to what See is 
not mentioned. — Scory and Coverdale were both consecrated 
(the first for Rochester, the latter for Exeter] on the same 
day, viz. Aug. 30, 1551, according to King Edward's Or- 
dinal. " — This is pretty clear. But concerning Barlow, 
he only drops this obscure hint : " Barlow, Sept. 15, 1535, 
elect of S. Asaph.— -Memorandum. The Consecration not 
inserted in the Register." And if so, where must we seek 
for it ? For though Bramhall had strictly examined the 
records of Lambeth, and Strype, with equal diligence, 
had conned over those of Canterbury, yet neither the one 
nor the other has been able, after all, to discover the least 
vestige of Barlow 's Consecration, 

2. " The short space between his [Barlow's'] election to 
,S. Asaph and translation to S. David's, and his absence in 
Scotland, might well prevent his Consecration for that time, 
and the Translation, especially if he continued any consider- 
able time in Scotland, might make his Consecration, when he 
came home, never questioned or thought of; especially bavin s 

Q g 2 



22$ The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth a$ 

his Spiritualities by the Archbishop's Confirmation, and his 
Temporalities restored by the King. And it is likely enough 
he might concur with the Archbishop in slight thoughts of 
such a formality." (G. Qu.)-~ Nay, it is something more 
than likely, it is even a certainty, that he did concur with 
Cratimer in slight thoughts of Ordination, It is clearly prov- 
ed in the Appendix, No. XIX. 

To which we shall add another flagrant proof of Barlow's 
disaffection, or rather contempt of holy Orders, from Mr. 
Collier" sEccl. Hist. Vol. II. B. ii. p. 135. "The northern 
rebels charged some of the Bishops with innovating in reli- 
gion. 'Tis probable they had some reason for this com^ 
plaint ; for Barlow, Bp. of S. David's, was inform'd 
against, for delivering in a sermon, among other things, the 
following passage : 'Item. That if the King's Grace, being 
Supreme Head of the Church of England, did chuse, deno- 
minate, and elect any layman, (being learned) to be a Bi- 
shop, that he so chosen (without mention of Orders) should 
be as good a Bishop as himself, Or the best in England." " 

.Now can it be supposed that such a man as this, and pos- 
sessed as he was with so mean and contemptible an opinion 
of Ordination, should be at all solicitous, whether what was 
done to D. Matthew Parker (in supposition of his having 
been ordained at Lambeth) was valid or invalid, legal or 
illegal, right or wrong? — And as for Barlow himself, upon 
consulting the writings of those that have taken the most 
pains to elucidate his Episcopal Ordination, we do not meet 
with so much as one single positive proof that he ever was a 
consecrated Bishop. And therefore, 

3. To sum up the evidence : If Barlow was ever ho- 
noured with Episcopal Consecration, it is an event that 
must have happened, either in the reign of K. Henry VIII. 
K. Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth : but it does not ap- 
pear to have happened in any of those periods. We may 
therefore conclude it happened not at all. 

To begin with the reign of K. Henry VIII, At the time 
of the general dissolution of the Monasteries, when some 
conscientious superiors of Religious Houses (because they 
had the courage to assert the rights and liberties of the 
Church, and to stand up in defence of possessions given to 
God,) were rewarded with an axe or a halter; this Judas % 
this betrayer of his trust, without the least seeming reluc- 
tance, or scruple of conscience, gave into the destructive 
scheme^ and, for the ready and nimble surrender of his 
Convent, suddenly became a mighty Court-favourite. From, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 229 

Court he was sent Ambassador into Scotland ; but whether a 
Bishop at that juncture or not, or of what see, authors vary. 
Some will have it, that he was then Bp. of S. Asaph, others 
call him Bp. of S. David's ; but they must be understood 
to speak proleptically ; for the Author of the Athena, Oxo- 
7iienses (p. 98) assures us, that when Barlow set out for 
Scotland, he was only Prior of Bysham. " And by that 
name and title, he was sent on an embassy into Scotland ; 
as I shall tell you elsewhere." And truly our Author is as 
good as his word. For, p. 573, he tells us expressly, that 
P William Barlow succeeded H. Standish in the latter end 
of the year 1535, who a little before (in the same year) was 
sent into Scotland with one Holcroft, about points of religi- 
on against the Pope; at which time, he, the said Barlow, 

was styled Prior of Bysham." Hence it plainly appears, 

that Prior Barlow began his journey to Scotland a little 
before he succeeded Bp. Standish in the See of S. Asaph; 
consequently, at his departure for Scotland, he could not be 
Bp. of S. Asaph, and much less Bp. of S. David's, as 
Burnet, Strype, and some others, very confidently, but 
falsely assert. 

In short, the whole of this affair, as far as I can perceive, 
and in all probability amounts to nothing more than this. 
While Prior Barlow was in Scotland, (but not before he 
started) he was nominated to the See of S. Asaph, and be- 
fore (or perhaps immediately upon) his return into Eng~ 
land, was translated to S. David's ; but as for his Ordina- 
tion, as Barlow entertained a contemptible opinion of 
that formality, so neither did the King, at this conjuncture, 
trouble his head much about it. It was enough for him, as 
JDugdale has observed, to advance Cranmer, Barlow, and 
some more of the Protestant Clergy, to Bishoprics and high 
places, to strengthen himself against the Pope. These were 
his tools. But whether ordained or unordained, it was all 
one to Old Harry. All he required of them, was a hearty 
concurrence with him in the gratification of his implacable 
revenge against the See of Rome. 

In fine, Mr. Strype, in his Memorials of the Life of 
Archbp. Cranmer, p. 98, discovers the purport and design 
of Barlow's embassy to Scotland. "That nation, then," 
says he, " had a great aversion to the Reformation, for they 
bighly disliked the courses King Henry took. Which 
prejudices the King understanding, endeavoured to take 
pff, by sending Barlow, Bp. of S. David's, (so called, we 
presume, by anticipation) to Scotland, with the book of 



230 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

the Institution of a Christian Man. Which nevertheless 
tnade no great impression upon that people." — The book 
was rejected by King James as unorthodox : and our negoti- 
ator returned from the north re infecta. However, it is 
generally agreed that Barlow, at his return home, had the 
temporalities of S. David's restored to him by the King ; but 
no news of his consecration during this reign. 

In the next reign, Barlow was translated from S. David's 
to Bath and Wells, by the King's Letters Patents. And 
though some pretend that Farrer was the first man that 
ever obtained a Bishopric by virtue of a Royal Patent, and 
without capitular election, yet it is certain that Barlow was 
the man. Burnet himself confesses this to be fact ; and so 
does Bramhall. And it is highly consistent with reason, to 
imagine that Barlow should first be removed (by Letters 
Patents) to Bath and Wells, before a vacancy could hap- 
pen for Farrer at S. David's. Add to this, that Bramhall 
(p. 190) produces two commissions out of the Court of 
Chancery, to confirm this supposition. In the first com- 
mission, Barlow's translation to Bath and Wells is dated 
3. Feb. 2, E. 6; and the second commission for the conse- 
cration of Robert Farrer to the Bishopric of S. David's 
(per iranslationem Willelmi Barlow, &c.) is dated S.Jul. 
{Burnet says Aug. 1] 2. E. 6. So that it is plain " It 
must be Barlow, and not Farrer, who first enjoyed the 
benefit of such Letters Patents." Heyl. Hist. Ref. p. 70. 

Finally, in the reign of Q. Elizabeth, Barlow was trans- 
lated to Chichester. And this was his last stage. 

Now here, it must be owned, we have plenty of transla- 
tions, and all of them to be found (says Bramhall) in their 
proper courts. Nevertheless, since Barlow's Consecrati- 
on-act does not appear upon the face of any record or regis- 
ter in Great Britain, it is very reasonable to conclude, he 
never was a consecrated Bishop. And such was Barlow's 
episcopal, now to his moral character. 

4. " J He was bred a Canon Regular of the Order of S. 
Austin, in the Monastery of S. Osith, in Essex, and partly 
among those of his Order in -Oxon, and there obtained a 
competency in theology, of which faculty, as it is said, he 
was a Doctor. Afterwards Jie was made Prior of the 
Canons of his Order at Bysham, near Maidenhead, in Berk- 
shire, and by that name and title he was sent on an embassy 
to Scotland." [King Henry successively advanced him to 

J Athena Oxonienscs, p. 98. 



Supreme Bead of the Church. 231 

the Bishoprics of S.Asaph and S.David's, and K. Edward 
to Bath and Wells.] " Upon Queen Mary's coming to the 
Crown, he was deprived of his Bishoprick for being- mar- 
ried ; whereupon retiring with many others into Germany, 
under pretence of religion, he lived therein a poor, exiled 
condition. At length, when Queen Elizabeth succeeded, 
he was made Bp. of Chichester,'''' 

And this is all the account we can give of this man, which, 
we presume, may be somewhat illustrated with the following 
supplemental remarks. 1. While Barlow was in possession 
of Bath and Wells, he committed monstrous dilapidations 
on that see, and shamefully squandered away (without fear 
or wit) the Church's patrimony. " In King Edward's 
reign being Bishop of Bath and Wells, he alienated from 
him and his successors much land to the Crown." Thus 
mutters D. Bramhall, p. 190. But D. Hey tin is not 
afraid or ashamed to speak out. " He gratified the Lord 
Protector with a present of eighteen or nineteen manors, 
which anciently belonged to this See." Hej/l. Hist. Ref. 
pp. 54 and 130. A handsome gratification ! a noble present 
of much land, and worthy the piety of Bp. Barlow ! 2. By 
conversing with the Puritan malecontents in Germany, he 
was thoroughly ri vetted in his disesteem, or rather contempt r 
of Ordinations and the episcopal character, which he re- 
tained to his dying day. 3. " Whatever was his learning, 
it seems his vert -lie was so little, and the offence he and Scory 
had given, so great, that they were never so much as restor- 
ed by Q. Elizabeth to their former Sees, but put into 
meaner ones, as the Historian [Burnet] informs us. Nor 
would she be crowned by either of them, tho' she could 
hardly get another to doit."— G. Ques.Bur. H. Ref. Vol.11. 
B. ii. p. 275. 

John Scory. 

Of this usurper of the See of Chichester we find very little 
recorded in history. And notwithstanding that in process 
of time he turned out a, famous Consecrator, yet we imagine 
it will be no easy matter to prove that he ever was a Bishop, 
validly ordained. Strype (from the authority of Regist. 
Cant.) tells us, that Scory was ordained Bp. of Rochester 
according to the New Ordinal, Aug. 30, 1551. But Bram- 
hall (p. 80) dates his Ordination (not in figures, which are 
more liable to mistakes, but in words at full length) the 
thirteenth day of August. And for this he quotes in the 



232 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

margin, Reg. Cran. Fol. 334. But whether Cant, or Cram 
or both, or neither, be in the right, is a matter of no im- 
portance. So leaving these writers and registers to litigate 
about the date of Scory' § Episcopal Ordination, this we can 
advance as a certainty, that all Ordinations conferred by 
K. Edward's New Ordinal, were solemnly declared, in the 
succeeding reign, to be null and void. However, upon 
Bishop Day's ejectment by King Edward's ministry, Scory 
(whether ordained or not) made a shift to get into posses- 
sion of the Episcopal Chair of Chichester. But no sooner 
was Queen Mary advanced to the throne, than he quitted 
the kingdom, and became Superintendant of an English 
Congregation at Embden. Returning home in the next 
reign, it is positively asserted and maintained by some, that 
Scory was Parker's only Consecrator at the Nag's Head 
Tavern, in Cheapside ; while others suppose him to have 
been one of the assistant-consecrators in a chapel at Lam- 
beth. But be that as it will, as soon as Parker was bi- 
shoped, (no matter where or how) Scory was promoted by 
.Queen Elizabeth to the See of Chichester. 

As to the moral character of this man, we do not find it 
drawn to any great advantage even by Protestant pens. 
Strype indeed pretends to say, that Scory continued always 
firm to the purity (as he calls it) of religion. But Mr. 
Wharton, who has detected a great many of Mr. Strype's 
inaccuracies and mistakes (and this among the rest) with 
more reason, and upon better authority, assures us, that 
"X Scory was so far from continuing always firm to the purity 
of religion, that in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, 
he reconciled himself to the See of Rome, submitted himself 
to Bishop Bonner, made a formal recantation, and did open 
penance for his marriage. However, afterwards he resum- 
ed his former principles, when he had got beyond sea." 
And truly, if all be true that is said of him, his morals were 
as bad as his principles were base. For he lived not only a 
public scandal to the mitre he had snatched from the head of 
Bishop Day, which is the common charge against him, (but 
what is still worse) the particular profligacy of his life ren- 
dered him obnoxious to the laws of his country; of whose 
just severity he must have tasted, had he not, with a round 
sum of money, purchased his quietus. For Mr. Fuller tells 

+ See Wharton upon Strype, at the end of Strype's Appendix.— -See al«o 
Bonner's certificate that Scory had put away his wife, in Burnet's Collection of 
Kecords, Yol. II, No. XIII.' 



Supreme Head of the Church. 233 

tis, that a bill of indictment was actually preferred against 
him in the Star*chamber, for no less crimes than " * op- 
pressions, extorsions, and simonies ; containing matter 
enough, not only to disgrace, but degrade him if prosecut- 
ed. But he bought out his innocence with money." 

Miles Coverdale, 

Some time an Austin Friar ; but quitting his habit, and 
his religion with it, he retired into Germany, and assisted 
Tindalin his wicked translation of the Bible. "tHe lived 
for the most part at Tubingen, an University belonging to 
the Duke of Saxony, where he received the degree of Doc- 
tor." — Returning into England in King Edward's reign, he 
was, upon Bp. Vesey's deposition, (or resignation as some 
call it) advanced to the See of Exeter, being ordained on 
the same day with Scory, and according to the new form 
prescribed by King Edward* 8 Ordinal, as we have already 
observed. Queen Mary being crowned, Coverdale was ob- 
liged to take another trip into Germany, where he shewed 
himself a confirmed Puritan ; and, in the subsequent trou- 
bles at Frankfort, became a mighty stickier against King 
Edward's Common Prayer-Book. Being called upon by 
Q. Elizabeth (for want of a better) to make one of Parser's 
assistant-consecrators (if there be any truth in Mason's 
story, which yet the Catholics deny) our German Doctor 
could not be prevailed upon, by any means, to put on the 
episcopal habiliments, or to assist at the supposed solemni- 
ty, in any other shape than that of a formal Puritan, in a 
long woollen gown, as Mr. Mason describes him. [Milo 
zero Cover dallus non nisi toga lanea talari utebatur.] — And 
D. Hej/lin gives us this reason for it, viz. his disaffection 
to the episcopalia. " J As for Miles Coverdale, he did not 
only wave the acceptation of Exon, but of any other Church 
then vacant. — Somewhat might be in it of disaffection to the 
[Episcopal] habit ; which it is to be believed the rather, be- 
cause he attended not at the Consecration in his Cope and 
Rochet, as others did, but in a plain black gown, reaching 
down to his ankles." 

Now here we beg leave to throw in an observation or two 
which this quotation naturally suggests. And 

First, we observe, that D. Heylin has transmitted to 

* Fuller's Ch. Hist. B. IX. p. 178. 

f Heylih'it Hi$t. Ref. p. 100. J Ibid. p. 123. 

Hh 



234 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

posterity a grand secret, an important discovery ! and what 
should that be, but the colour, the identical colour of Miles 
Coverdale'% long gown ! And we are very much surprised^ 
that a particularity of such importance could possibly 
escape the knowledge of the acute Mr. Mason ; especially 
when we consider how affectedly, and even ridiculously cir- 
cumstantial he labours to appear, through the whole process 
of his supposed Lambeth-Ovdination I 

Secondly, we observe,, that these words, as others did? 
seem to imply, that though Coverdale did not, yet all the 
others did assist in their Copes and Rochets. But this is 
contradicted by Mason himself, who represents the Suffra- 
gan of Bedford as much a Puritan in querpo, and as formal 
and precise a figure as old Coverdale. And in order to prove 
this, it will be requisite to subjoin a word or two relative to 
this same 

Suffragan Hodgskins. 

s But, with regard to this man, sorry we are that it is not 
in our power, with any tolerable degree of certainty, to gra- 
tify the reader's curiosity or our own. We dare not pe- 
remptorily transcribe his name, for fear of lapsing into a 
mistake. Bramkatl will have him to be Richard, Mason 
calls him John. Again, Mason styles him Suffragan of 
Bedford; IStrype (from no less authority than Cant. Reg.) 
assures us, that the See (as he calls it) is not mentioned in 
the Register. Some suppose it to be Bedford, others 
Dover. In short, so little can be positively advanced with 
relation to this man, either from history or the records, that, 
perhaps, he may not improperly be compared to a ghost in a 
play, which dramatic writers introduce or conjure up, only 
to act its part, and then vanish off the stage. And truly this 
seems to have been Hodgskins 1 case. For after Parker's 
Consecration at Lambeth, (if that was the scene of action) 
he immediately disappears, and we hear no more of him. 

As to his principles, we conjecture they were much of the 
same stamp with those of the famous old Puritan Miles 
Coverdale. Nay, this appears to be something more than 
mere conjecture, from Mason 1 s own Register, wherein it 
is expressly held forth, that at Lambeth, (supposing Parker 
to have been ordained there) Coverdale and tlogdskins dis- 
dained to suffer either Copes or Rochets, or any such-like 
Popish gear, to come upon their backs, but assisted (and 
undoubtedly cut puritanical figures) in their long gowns. — 



Supreme Head of the Church. 235 

[Cover dallus vero et Bedford ias Suffraganeus, tog is solum- 
modb talaribus utebanturj] — And such were Parker's con- 
secrators ! 

In fiue, since, we apprehend, it will prove a hard matter to 
make good, or justify the title and pretensions of Barlow, 
Scory, Coverdale, and Hodgskins, to the episcopal charac- 
ter, we have reason to conclude, t\\i\t Parker's Ordination 
can appear in no other light or colour than that of a lame 
cause ; and so very lame indeed, as to halt on all four. 



§ 7. — What Form of Ordination was made use of in the 
Reign of K. Edward VI.. .When, upon what Account, 
and by whom corrected ? 

V? e shall begin our remarks upon the Form of making Bi- 
shops, &c. in the days of King Edward the Sixth, with 
Heylhi's account of it, which is this : 

" t Nov. 4, 1559, it was enacted in Parliament, * That 
such form and manner of making and consecrating Archbi- 
shops, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and other Ministers of 
the Church, as by six Prelates, and six other learned men, 
learned in God's Law, by the King to be appointed and as- 
signed, or by the most number of them, shall be devised for 
that purpose, and set forth under the Great Seal, before the 
first of dpril next coming, shall be lawfully exercised and 
used, and no other.' " Now the Form devised by a majority 
in this committee, was thus expressed. 

Take the Holy Ghost, and remember that tJwu stir up the 
Grace of God which is now in thee, by the imposition of 
hands : for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of 
power, and lore, and soberness. 

And according to this new -invented form, the celebrated 
D. Parker is supposed by ]\Ir. Mason (in his supposititious 
Register) to have been consecrated at Lambeth : and D. 
Ileylin seems to confirm this supposition, when he tells us, 
that " £ The service was performed according to the Ordi- 
nal of King Edward the Sixth, then newiy published for 
that purpose." 

But to this the Catholics reply, that K. Edward' 's form 
and manner of making Bishops, &c. comes not up to the 

f Heylin's Hist. P*cfth, p. R2. + Idem, p. 121. 

11 1) 2 



236 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

design nor answers the purpose of valid Ordinations. They 
observe, that there is nothing in the form and manner ex^- 
pressive of the order, power, character, office, or duty of a 
Bishop. They observe, (what even Bramhall and Mason 
acknowledge) that no Ordination is ta be esteemed valid, 
unless there he jit words to determine the outward rites, so 
and in such manner as to signify the Order given. And 
therefore, since neither the Order given, nor so much as the 
word Bishop, &c. are expressed in the Edwardian Form, 
the Catholics conclude it must he a very insufficient one. 
Nay, the Church-of-England Protestants seem to acknow- 
ledge, \x\fact, as much as this comes to. Witness the 
new edition of K. Edward's Ordinal, which was publish- 
ed (with considerable amendments) upon the following oc- 
casion. 

Anno 1662, a book entitled Erastus Senior, appeared in 
public. The author of that performance demonstratively 
proves, that K. Edward's Form of making Bishops, 
Priests, &c. has nothing in it that denotes expressly (or so 
much as by implication) the office or character of a Bishop, 
Priest, &c. Upon which the Convocation, then sitting, 
took it into their heads to make some alterations and im- 
provements in the said Form ; of which the following is an 
exact copy, a faithful transcript. 

i Receive the Holy Ghost ["for the office and work 
of a Bishop in the Church of God, committed unto thee by 
the imposition of our hands. In the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."] And remember 
thou stir up the grace of God, which is given thee by the 
imposition of our hands; for God hath not given us the 
spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and soberness.' 

Now here indeed we have the office and worh of a Bishop 
very dexterously hocus-pocus 1 d into the Edwardian Form 
of Ordination, but to what purpose, the Catholics desire to 
be informed. For if, previously to these amendments, 
the Ordination-Form was right, sufficient, and valid, 
what could induce the Convocation to alter it ? But if 
(before these last corrections) it was wrong, insufficient, and 
invalid, does it not inevitably follow, that the present Cler- 
gy of the Church of Englandha\e derived, and do still de- 
rive their Orders from a succession of Bishops, who, for an 
hundred years and upwards, were, not one of them, right- 
ly, sufficiently, or validly ordained ? But more of this in 
our answer to the third objection. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 237 



§6. — Q. Elizabeth dispenses with all Irregularities and 
Defects in Parker's Consecration. 

Jb Roai what we have already advanced upon this subject, it 
seems pretty plain, that Parker's conseci ators were not a 
little deficient in their Episcopal Character, or Power of 
Order, which may not, perhaps, be improperly compared to 
a magni nominis umbra ,• nor does their Porter of Jurisdic- 
tion appear, upon euquiry, to be better grounded. For what 
Power of Jurisdiction can be supposed to be lodged in the 
hands of those, who, in the Queen's Commission, and 
Mason's Register, are only styled quondam Bishops, or 
Bishops elect ? They had been legally outed and depriv- 
ed of their Bishoprics by Queen Mary ; and in this state of 
deprivation, and stript as they were of all manner of Juris- 
diction, how they could nevertheless confer (what they had 
not) a Metropohtical Jurisdiction on Matthew Parker, is 
unaccountable. 

We grant, indeed, that it had been enacted by Stat. 1. 
Eliz. 1. that * her Majesty might assign, name, and autho- 
rize any persons, being natural born subjects to her High- 
ness, to exercise all manner of Spiritual Jurisdiction.' But 
still it does not appear plain to us, that her Highness had 
any Pastoral Jurisdiction herself, to give to any body. We 
grant also, that Bartow and Scory had both been nominat- 
ed by Q. Elizabeth to Bishoprics, the first to Chichester, the 
latter to Hereford; but then it seems, they were not cow- 
firmed in those sees, and consequently could have no actual 
jurisdiction at or before the time of Parker's Ordination. A 
circumstance ingenuously confessed by D. Heylin. 

" t No sooner was the solemnity ended, but a em man- 
date comes for the confirmation of D. Barlow in tie See of 
Chichester, and D. bcory to the See of Hereford. And 
tho' the not restoring them to their former Sees, might seem 
to justify Queen Mary in their deprivation, yet the Queen 
wanted not good reasons for their present removal." 

What reasons might induce Q. Elizabeth to remove these 
gentry from one Bishopric to another, the Doctor does not 
tell us ; nor is it, 1 believe, worth any body's while to en- 
quire : but what reason (yood or bad) can be assigned or 
pretended, why she did not confirm them in their respective 
Sees, and invest them with actual Jurisdiction (if it were in 

t tfeyUn'sHist. Rcf. p. 123, 



238 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

her power so to do) before she commissioned them to or- 
dain f This, methinks, should have been done at the be- 
ginning, not at the end of the solemnity. 

However, these unlucky omissions, and all other disabili- 
ties, irregularities, and defects in the consecrators, (for 
Bramhall himself confesses that Milts CoverdaWs woollen 
gown needed a dispensation) were happily supplied, by af- 
fording her Majesty a fine opportunity to display her Apos- 
tolical Commission to great advantage, and to distinguish 
the Royal Mandate for Par~ker r s Consecration, in a very 
significant manner, by the following dispensative clause, 
with which it concludes. 

f Supplying nevertheless, by our Supreme Authority 
Royal, whatever is or shall be wanting in you, or any of 
you, to perform the premises, whether in the things which, 
pursuant to our commission aforesaid, shall be done by you, 
or in your condition, state, or faculty, which by the sta- 
tutes of this kingdom, or by the ecclesiastical laws in this 
part, are required, or are necessary: the condition of 
the times, and the necessity of things, requiring it.' — Vide 
App. No. XX. 

However, this dispensation from the throne, notwithstand- 
ing its amplitude, was both rallied and ridiculed, even by 
the common sort of people. Wherefore, to remedy this epi- 
demical obloquy, and audacity of speech and talk, immedi- 
ate recourse was had to (the old refuge) an Act of Parlia- 
ment, part of which we thought it might not be improper, 
in this place, to subjoin. 

6 f For as much as divers questions, by over-much bold- 
ness of speech an*i talk, amongst many of the common sort 
of people, being unlearned, hath lately grown, upon the 
making and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops, with- 
in this realm, whether the same were and be duly and or- 
derly done. Whereupon our said Sovereign Lady the 

Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, in her Letters Patents, 
under the Great Seal of England, hath not only used such 
words as were accustomed to be used by King Henry and 
King Edward, her Majesty's father and brother, but also 
hath put into her Majesty's said Letters Patents divers 
pother general words and sentences, whereby her Highness, 
by her supreme power and authority, hath [N. B.] tU0p£tt0- 
ti with all causes and doubts of any imperfection or di bi- 
jjty that can or may be objected against the same. — So 

f Collier's Ecct. Hist. Yol.il. B. \i. pp. 309, 510, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 239 

that, to all those who will considier the supreme and abso- 
lute authority which she hath used and put in tire, in the 
making and consecrating" of the said Archbishops and 
Bishops, it is evident, that no cause of scruple, ambiguity, 
or doubt, can be justly objected against the said consecra- 
tions, &c.' 

But, notwithstanding Q. Elizabeth's supreme and absolute 
power and authority, which was put in ure upon this occa- 
sion, there is still a large field left open to endless scruples, 
ambiguities, and doubts. To give some instances. 

It may be doubted whether Q. Elizabeth, with all her 
plenitude of power, could ascertain or warrant tlrat Ordi- 
nation to be legal and canonical, which was against the lams 
and canons. 

It may be, and still is doubted, whether the momentous 
affair was transacted in Cheapside or at Lambeth. 

It may be doubted, whether Parser's consecrators (sup- 
posing Lambeth to have been the place) made use of a valid 
form of words, or were validly ordained Bishops themselves. 
And therefore we may conclude, that, 

•' If Parser's consecrators be 

No Bishops, then no Bishop he : 
He none, then we may truly say, 
Not one in all the world have they." 

Ward's Ref. Cant. IV. 



§ 9. — Objections answered. 

Obj. 1. — " JL ho' Barlow and Scory were deprived of their 
Episcopal Sees, yet the justice and legality of their depri- 
vation was not clear in law.'* Heyl. Hist. Ref. p. 122. 

In answer to this objection, two things are to be consi- 
dered, viz. the legality and the justice of Barlow's and 
Scory* & deprivation. 

With regard to the first, we think it but ill becomes D.Hey- 
lin to dispute the legality of the fact in question, who takes 
care to inform us, that not only Barlow and Scory, but like- 
wise all the rest of his new incumbents, (as he calls them) were 
deprived by Act of Parliament, i. e. by a law made by the 
people of England in their legislative capacity, without 
any violence, tumult, undue influence, or indirect means. 
And if such an act, and attended with all these circum^ 



240 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

stanpes, may not be allowed to be a legal one, where must 
we seek for legality of facts ? 

As to the justice of Barlow and Scory's deprivation, it is 
as well grounded as its legality is incontestable. They were 
both deprived on account of their uncanonical marriages ; 
to which if we add their disedifying conduct and offensive 
behaviour (which even Burnet himself cannot conceal) we 
must confess their deposition deserves to be styled a neces- 
sary act of justice. For we suppose it must be allowed to be 
an act of distributive justice in any crowned head, to punish 
notorious delinquents. 

The sentence therefore of deprivation, pronounced in the 
days of Queen Mary, upon Barlow and Scory, had all the 
legality in it that the three states of this realm, in Parlia- 
ment assembled, could give it ; and all the justice that 
could be expected or desired, in a case where it was neces- 
sary for scandalous offenders to meet with condign punish- 
ment. So that, all things duly considered, the uncanonical 
attempts of Barlow and Scory (supposing nothing else had 
been urged against them) might well seem to justify Queen 
Mary, (as the Doctor expresses himself) in their de- 
position. 

But he pretends, " They neither were nor could be de- 
priv'd of their Episcopal Character." — Heyl. ibid. 

But this is begging the question : and the Doctor ought to 
have proved what he only supposes, viz. " That Barlow and 
Scoi'y were Bishops validly ordained." This the Catholics 
absolutely deny ; and they apprehend, it is more than Bar- 
low and Scory' § advocates will ever be able to make good. 
It is confessed indeed, that Scory was consecrated (if it may 
be called, according to King Edward's Form. But then, 
this yery form was declared to be absolutely null in Queen 
Mary's first Parliament. As for Barlow, we cannot learn 
that he was ever consecrated at all. No register has pre- 
served his Consecration-Act. In vain have Mason, Bram- 
hall, Burnet, Strype, and Wharton, sought for it. And 
in vain may others seek for it, we believe, till the day of 
doom i 

Object. II.— Bp. Bramhall, in his Consec. and Sue, of 
Prot. Bps. justified, keeps such a continual stir and bustle 
about Pope Paul IV. and Cardinal Pole ; and repeats their 
names so often, and in so triumphant a manner, as to make 
one almost inclinable to believe they were the two main 
pillars of the English Reformation, In short, he has the 



Supreme Head of the Church. 241 

assurance, (p. 63) to aver, " That K. Edward's Form of 
Ordination wasjudged valid in Q. Mary's days by all Ca- 
tholieks, and particularly by Cardinal Pool, then Apostoli- 
cal Legate in England, and by the then Pope Paul IV. and 
by all the Clergy and Parliament of England." — And again, 
(p. 154), " Paul IV. and Cardinal Pool confirmed all Or- 
dinations in King Edward's time indifferently.*' See also 
p. 167, 172, ]73, 194> 225. 

But the contrary of this assertion happens to be the real 
truth. And it was certainly very ill judged in D. Bram- 
hall, to pitch upon the most unlikely period in the British 
history for the granting of favours or indults to the refor- 
mers. For it is notoriously known, that in the very first 
Parliament under this Queen, all ordinations that had been 
conferred according to King Edward's Ordinal, were de- 
clared to be void, and of no effect. Add to this, the Queen's 
Articles, or instructions to Bishop Bonner^ wherein all 
persons ordained after the new sort and fashion of orders, are 
expressly said, not to be ordered in very deed. 

Yet notwithstanding these plain and positive historical 
facts, Bramhall still persists in his opinion, which he en- 
deavours to support by appealing to Cardinal Pole's Bull 

of Dispensation, part whereof he quotes as follows : 

* And we will graciously receive, by ourselves, or by others 
deputed by Us to that purpose, as many have already been 
received, in their orders, and in their benefices, all ecclesi- 
astical persons, as well seculars as regulars, of whatsoever 
orders, which have obtained any suits, dispensations, grants, 
graces, and indults, as well in their Ecclesiastical Orders 
as Benefices, or other spiritual matters, by the pretended 
Authority of the Supremacy of the Church of England, tho* 
ineffectually, and only de facto, so they be penitent, and 
be returned to the unity of the Church. And We will, in 
due time, dispense with them in the Lord for these things.' 

[Vid. App. No. XXI.] Hence our Author (p. 66) infers, 

" That if the Bishops and Priests ordained in K. Edward 
VI.'s time wanted some essential of their respective Ordi- 
nations, then it was not in the power of all the Popes and 
Legates that ever were in the world, to confirm their re- 
spective Orders, or dispense with them." 

Now, admitting this inference to be true, what is it to the 
purpose ? For, suppose the Cardinal Legate, upon the 
discovery of some essential defect in the Bishops and Priests 
ordained in K. Edward VI.'s time, could neither confirm 
aor dispense with them, must we therefore presently con- 

I i 



242 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

elude, there was no other imaginable remedy in his power ? 
Pray what should hinder him (in cases where neither (Con- 
firmations nor Dispensations could take place) from having 
recourse to re-ordination ? This was no uncommon remedy 
in those days. It was indeed the only remedy for defective 
Ordinations. It was both enjoined and insisted upon in 
Queen Mary's Articles to her Bishops, as appears from the 
tenor of the fourteenth article, which runs thus : 

Art. 14. ' Touching such persons as were heretofore pro- 
moted to any Orders, after the new sort and fashion of Or- 
ders, considering they were not ordered in very deed, the 
Bishop of the Diocese, finding otherwise sufficiency and 
ability in those men, may supply that thing which was 
wanting in them before, and then, according to his discre- 
tion, admit them to minister. 7 

Now, 1 say, though we should admit of D. Bramhall's 
supposition, that K. Edward's Clergy were incapable of 
being confirmed or dispensed with in their respective Orders, 
(considering they were not ordered in very deed) it is ivot 
however to be imagined they should still be incapable of 
having their defective orders supplied by re-ordination. 

But does not the Cardiual say, " He will dispense with 
them in their orders V 

Yes, he does : but then he takes care to apply that resto- 
rative, not to all indiscriminately, but to such only as were 
capable of reaping the benefit of it, i. e. ' To such as had 
been duly and rightly ordained ox promoted, before they had 
they had the misfortune to lapse into the heterodoxies of 
those times. — [Dummodo ante eorumlapsum in hasresim rite 
et legitime ordinati velprometifuerint.'] —Card. Pole's Fac. 

It may not therefore be unnecessary to observe, in this 
dispute, that as long as the ancient Ordinal had a being, 
and was duly aud religiously observed, no questions were 
ever started, no scruples raised, about the Validity of Or- 
ders. All such as were ordained before the death of K. Hen- 
ry WW. (according to the ancient form and manner of or- 
daining) and had afterwards embraced the errors of the 
next reign, were entitled (upon their returning to their 
duty under Queen Mary) to Cardinal Pole's Dispensation; 
in virtue whereof they were restored to the free and lawful 
exercise of their Orders, and reinstated in the peaceable en- 
joyment of their benefices and dignities, wherewith they had 
been invested before their fall from the Old Religion. But 
as for those, whose Ordinations had been conferred ac- 
cording to the Form prescribed in K. Edward's Ordinal, 



Supreme Head of the Church. 243 

(i. e. after the new sort and fashion of Orders) we agree 
with D. Brdmhall, that it was not in the power of PanliV. 
of Cardinal Pole, nor of all the Popes and Legates in the 
world, to confirm or dispense with them. For what room 
could there be for Pope's or Legates {Pauls or Poles) to 
confirm or dispense with such Ordinations as were well 
known, in Queen Mary's days, to labour under an essential 
defect, and to be, and to have been, null and void ub initio f 
In fine, since there is no argument like matter of fact, let 
it be observed, that the conduct of the Bp. of Gloucester 
spoke very plain in disfavour of K. Edward's Ordinal, when 
that Prelate, in quality of the Queen's Commissary, de- 
graded D. Ridley as a Priest only, not as a Bishop ; for, 
says he, (or Fox at least makes him say) we do not achnow- 
ledgeyoufor a Bishop. The same thing happened to Hooper 
and Farrer, who having been ordained Priests according to 
the old form, {Temp. H. 8.); and being afterwards advanced 
to Bishoprics by K. Edward, (the former to Gloucester, the 
latter to S. David's) yet neither of them was degraded from 
any order above that of Priesthoo/l. And as for Bradford, 
though Fox calls him a Priest, nevertheless, by his not being 
looked upon by the Catholics, as one that had been raised 
or advanced by virtue of his new-fashioned Orders, above 
the rank of a layman, he was never degraded at all. Hence 
it evidently appears, both from the opinions and practice of 
the Marian Prelates, that the Bishops and Priests ordained 
in King Edward's time, were never owned, never acknow- 
ledged by them, never allowed to be true Bishops and 
Priests. Nor is it less evident, that Bp. Bramhall imposes 
upon the credulity or ignorance of his readers, when, with- 
out a due regard to the truth, he boldly asserts, " That K. 
Edward's Form of Ordination wasjudged valid in Queen Ma- 
ry'* days by Pope Paul IV. Card. Pole, and all Catholicks ! r ' 

Object. III. — Admitting that the Form of Ordination 
might be somewhat lame and defective in the time of K. 
Edward the Sixth, Q. Elizabeth, K. James the First, and 
K. Charles the First ; nevertheless, (to remove all defici- 
encies) in the reign of K. Charles /he Second, it was enact- 
ed in Parliament that, for the future, to nit after 6. Bar^ 
tlwlomew's day 166'2, the form of ordaining a Bishop should 
be i " receive the Holy Ghost for the office ai\d work of a Bi- 
shop, &c." — and of a priest, — " receive the 11. Ghost for the 
office of a Priest, &e." — And is not this sufficient? What 
would the Catholics desire more? The Catholics reply: 

Ii2 



244 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

First, that the new edition of the Protestant Ordinal 
(Temp. Car. sec.) has had the misfortune to come into the 
world a great deal too late to be serviceable, in any degree, 
to the Church by law established. For what were those 
additions to the first form, but a tacit acknowledgment of 
its insufficiency, and a downright giving up of the cause, at 
least as to all Ordinations collated from the year 1550, to 
1662, which takes in somewhat more than a solid century ? 
For, in short, either the improvements and additions to the 
Edwardian form, anno 1662 (for which, by the by, we may 
thank Erastus Senior) were essentially necessary, or not : 
if essentially necessary, then what becomes of all the Ordi- 
nations prior to that remarkable sera ? if unnecessary, why 
were they inserted at all ? But, 

Secondly, it is absolutely denied by all Catholics, that 
the Office of a Priest is sufficiently expressed in the modern 
Protestant Ordinal. True it is, that the words Office and 
Priest, are now, not unartfully foisted into the text j but 
wherein that Office consists, is still the (undetermined) 
question. It is questionable to this day, what, it is in parti- 
cular, that the Church of England Ministers receive, by 
virtue of their Ordinations. Will you say they receive the 
power of forgiving sins ? But how is that possible ? How 
is it possible for any one to be invested with the power of 
absolution, without being first a truly and validly ordained 
Priest ? Is there any body, besides such a Priest, capable 
of receiving such a power ? It is very well known that the 
Power of the Keys is jurisdictional only: and therefore, 
if it be not founded on the Power of Order, it must ne- 
cessarily fall to the ground ; for it has nothing else to stand 
upon. 

Then what a preposterous method of proceeding must 
that be, to challenge a power of absolving penitents, without 
having first received the Power of Order, i. e. a power to 
offer up sacrifices to God, and to consecrate the body and 
blood of Jesus Christ f For this is, properly speaking, the 
Office of a Priest, Even D. Bramhall himself, (p. 226), 
admits, that " they who are ordained Priests ought to have 
power to consecrate the Sacrament of the Body and Blood 
of Jesus Christ." And truly all mankind, from the earliest 
account of time, seem to have always entertained this notion 
of Priests, that it is their Office, their Duty, and the prin- 
cipal Function belonging to their character, to offer up Sa^ 
orifices. Did not the Jews, and the heathens too in all ages, 
fiiid jn every climate, look upon their priests to be a society 



Supreme Head of the Church. 245 

of men set apart, ordained, and appointed to sacrifice and 
to officiate at the altar ? Is there not a most intimate and 
inseparable connection between Altar, Priest, and Sacri- 
fice ? And must they not, all three, stand or fall to- 
gether ? 

In the last place, we presume it will scarce be urged by 
any man in his right senses, that the whole duty of a Priest 
consists in preaching. For it is very well known, that even 
women, in this nation, aspire to that office, and are said, 
indeed, to perform it to the admiration of their hearers. If 
therefore preaching be the only function belonging to the 
sacerdotal character, will not our Female Pulpiteers put in 
their claim to the Priesthood 6 t And will not each of them 
pretend (if this be the only requisite) to be as good a Priest 
as the best Minister 'in the Church of England i 

But we beg pardon for dwelling so long upon a subject 
too copious and extensive, it must be confessed, for histo- 
rical remarks, and which, in reality, would require a sepa- 
rate volume. We shall, therefore, close the whole contro- 
versy with observing, that the Episcopal Character in the 
Church of England must undoubtedly stand upon a sound 
bottom, a solid foundation, when that very Church appears 
upon record (even her own favourite record) to have received 
her Primitive Ordination from the hands of the Puritans ! 
In which case, it was not more than necessary for Q. Eli- 
zabeth to exert her supreme and absolute authority ; since 
several other irregularities, besides Miles Coverdale's wool- 
Jen gown, needed a dispensation. 



§10. — Of the Ravages committed by Q.Elizabeth and her 
Courtiers on English Bishoprics. 

How fond soever Q. Elizabeth might seem to be of esta- 
blishing Episcopacy in this realm, nevertheless much greater 
and more real was her fondness and affection for the Epis- 
copal Revenues. This is candidly confessed by Protestant 
Historians. They assure us, that, when any of the Spirit- 
ual Lords dropt by death or deprivation, (which is a civil 
death) her Majesty took care never to be in too much haste 
to supply vacant sees with incumbents. On the contrary, a 
Jong sede vacante was always sure to take place ; that the 



246 The Exploits of Q. Elizabeth as 

Ecclesiastical Revenues might, by such favourable interims, 
be commodiously applied to augment those of the Crown. 
But let us hear 1). Heylin upon this subject. 

" ■* Anno Reg. Eliz. 1. it was enacted, that in the vacancy 
of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for 
the Queen to issue out a commission under the Great Seal, 
for taking a survey of all castles, manors, lands, tenements, 

&c. as to her seemed good. —And as all the Bishops' 

Sees were so long kept vacant before any of them was 
filled ,• so, in the following times, they were kept void, 
one after another, as occasion served, till the best flowers 
in the garden of the Church had been culled out of it. 

" There was another clause in the said statute, by which 
the Patrimony of the Church was as much dilapidated, 
even after the restoring of the Bishops, as it was in the 
times of vacancy. For by that clause, all Bishops were 
restrained from making any grants of their farms or ma- 
nors for more than one and twenty years, or three lives 
at the most, except it were to the Queen, her heirs and 
successors : and under that pretence, they might be grant- 
ed to any of her hungry courtiers in free-farm, or for a lease 
of fourscore and nineteen years, as it pleased the parties. 
By which means, Crediton was dismembered from the See 
of Exeter, and the goodly manor of Sherburn from that of 
Salisbury. Many fair manors were likewise alienated from 
the rich Sees of Winchester and Ely, and indeed what 
not ? Moreover, when the rest of the Episcopal Sees were 
supplied with new Bishops, yet York and Winchester were 
not so soon provided, that they might afford one Michael- 
mas rent more to the Queen's Exchequer, before the 
Lord Treasurer could give way to a new incumbent." — Mr. 
Collier adds, that -. 

" t The Bishoprick of Oxford was in a manner quite 
stript by the Earls of Leicester and Essex •> and for that 
purpose, as may reasonably be conjectured, kept void the 
greatest part of this reign. In short, all the Bishopricks 
of K. Henry the Eighth^ erection were so lamentably im- 
poverished, that the new Bishops, at their first promotion, 
were forced to beg for their living, and subsist on the bene- 
volence of their Clergy." 

Now to some perhaps it may seem not a little strange 

* Hcylin's Hist. Ref. pp. 120, 121, 156. 
f Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. II. B. vi. p. 480. 



Supreme Head of the Church. 247 

and unaccountable, that Q. Elizabeth, after having esta- 
blished a Reformed Episcopacy, should nevertheless bear 
so very hard upon the Episcopal Revenues, and even plun- 
der Bishoprics. But D. Heylin has left us a key, to let us 

into the meaning of this notable court -contrivance. >The 

Queen, says he, had fixed herself on her resolution of 

keeping up some outward splendor of a Church. -And 

how could this outward splendor be better kept up, than by 
the pomp and parade of Bishops ? She only therefore 
wanted Bishops to make a show ; but not to govern the 
Church. This, she was soon convinced, she could do very 
well without them. 

In fine, Q. Elizabeth shewed herself, in thus, and in 
many other instances, a true daughter of Harry the 
Eighth. Her father had swept off the golden harvest of 
Abbies and Abbey-Lands. Her brother fell heir to a se- 
cond crop of Chanteries, Free-Chapels, and Hospitals. 
Nothing then was left for Elizabeth, but a few gleanings : 
and where could she glean with better hopes of success, than 
upon Bishop's Lands ? 



END OF THE SECOND PART. 



248 



THE SUPPLEMENT. 



Jljy way of Supplement to our Memoirs of the Reformatiort 
of England, we judged it might not be improper to subjoin 
a few instances of true Presbyterian Zeal (or rather spite 
and malice) against the remaining pious and majestic mo- 
numents of antiquity, which had escaped the sacrilegious 
hands of the first reformers. 

We shall not detain the reader, nor suspend his expecta- 
tion of what is yet to come, any longer, than to acquaint 
him, that (excepting D. Patrick^ narrative) all our in- 
telligence relative to the subsequent Puritanic Depre- 
dations, is derived from a Book entitled Mercurius Rtts- 
ticus. 

And this being briefly premised, in the front of all the 
Churches that have undergone a second persecution, we 
shall place the Cathedral of 

Canterbury. 

How this Church was handled by the pious zealots, D. 
Paske's Letter to the Earl of Manchester will inform us. 

6 My ever honoured Lord, 

* Colonel Sandys arriving here with his troops on Friday 
night, presently caused a strict watch and sentinels to be 
set, both upon the Church, and upon several bouses, to the 
great affright of the inhabitants. This done, Serjant Major 
Cochaine came to me, and, in the name of the Parliament, 
demanded to see the arras of the Church, and the store- 
powder of the county, which I presently show'd him. — The 
next morning we were excluded the Church, and not per- 
mitted to enter. But about eight of the clock Sir Michael 
Livesey, attended with many soldiers, came unto our offi- 
cers, and commanded them to deliver up the keys of the 
church, which they did, and thereupon he departed ; when 
the soldiers entering the Church and quire, giant-like, be- 
gan to fight with God himself, overthrew the communion- 



The Supplement. 249 

labia* tore the velvet cloth from before it, defaced the 
goodly screen or tabernacle-work, violated the monuments 
of the dead, spoiled the organs, broke down the ancient 
rails and seats, with the brazen eagle which did support the 
Bible, forced open the cupboards of the singing-men, rent 
some of their surplices^ gowns, and Bibies, and carried 
away others; mangled all our Service-Books and Books of 
Common-Prayer; bestrowing the whole pavement with the 
leaves thereof. They further exercised their malice upon 
the arras hanging in the quire, representing the whole story 
of our Saviour :; whereiu observing divers figures of Christ, 
(I trembje to express their blasphemies) one said, that Here 
is Christ, and swoie he would stab him. Another said, 
Here is Christ, and snore that he would rip up his bowels: 
which they did accordingly, so far as the figures were ca- 
pable of, besides many other villanies. And not content 
therewith, finding another statue of Christ in the frontis- 
piece of the south gate, they discharged against it 40 shot 
at the least, triumphing much when they did hit it on the 
head or face, as if they were resolved to crucify him again 
hi his figure, whom they could not hurt in truth. Nor had 
their fury been thus stop' d, threatning the ruin of the whole 
fabrick, had not the .Colonel, with some others, come to its 
relief and rescue. Your Lordship will be pleased to par- 
don my hasty expressions, which proceeded from a grieved 
heart ; and 1 am confident the Honourable Houses of Par- 
liament, being rightly informed herein, will proceed against 
the like abuses and impieties in other places ; in the mean 
time, we submit with patience to the Providence .of Him, 
who can, and will, bring good out of evil, which is the ear- 
nest prayer of 

* Your Lordship's most obliged servant, 

6 Thomas Paske. r 
c Aug. 30, 1643/ 

Rochester. 

ic The rebels, tinder the command of Colonel Sandys and 
Sir John JSeatan, coming to Rochester, brought the same 
affections along with them which they expressed at Canter- 
bury, though they did less mischief. The monuments of 
the dead, which elsewhere they broke open and violated, 
stood untouched ; the seats and stalls of the quire escaped 
breaking down.; only they broke down the rail about the 

K k 



250 The Supplement. 

Lord's Table, seiz'd upon the velvet covering, and remov- 
ed it into a lower part of the church. And to show what 
members they are of the Church of England, they strew'd 
the pavement with the torn, mangled leaves of the Book of 
Common-Prayer. Thus having done some spoil, they left 
the church. But into what farther outrageous impieties 
this schismatical fury hath since transported them, or 
what else they have practised on this church, to complete 
their monstrous reformation, is not yet made known to us." 

Chichester. 

"The rebels, under the conduct of Sir William Waller, 
entering the city of Chichester on Innocents'' Day, 1642 ; 
the next day, their first business was to plunder the Cathe- 
dral Church. There they seiz'd upon the vestments and 
ornaments of the Church, together with the consecrated 
plate. They left not so much as a cushion for the pulpit, 
nor a chalice. The commanders having in person exe- 
cuted the covetous part of sacrilege, they leave the destruc- 
tive and spoiling part to be finished by the common soldi- 
ers. They broke down the organs, and dashing the pipes 
with their poll-axes, scoffingly said, Hark how the organs 
go I They broke the rail about the communion-table, which 
was done with such fury, that the table itself escaped not, 
but tasted of the same fare with the rail, and was broke in 
pieces. They forced open all the locks either of doors or 
desks, wherein the singing-men laid up their Common 
Prayer-Books, their gowns and surplices. They rent the 
books in pieces, and scattered the torn lea\es over all the 
Church ; but against the gowns and surplices their anger 
was uot so hot ; these were not amongst the anathemata, 
but might be reserved to secular uses. In the south cross- 
isle, on one side, the history of the Church's foundation 
was very artfully pourtray'd, with the pictures of the 
Kings of England; on the other side, over against them, 
w ere the pictures of the Bishops. These monuments they 
deface and mangle with their hands and swords, as high as 
they could reach : and to show their love and zeal to the 
Protestant Religion established in the Church of England, 
one of these miscreants pickt out the eyes of King Edward 
the Sixth's picture, saying, ' That all this mischief came 
from him, when he established the Common Prayer- 
Book." 



The Supplement, 251 



Winchester. 

u The rebels under the conduct of Sir William Waller, 
sate down before the city of Winchester, on Tuesday the 
12th of December, 1642. Wednesday they spent in plun- 
dering the city ; on Thursday morning they violently broke 
open the Cathedral. They entered the Church with colours 
Hying-, drums beating, and some of their troops of horse 
also accompanied them in their march, and rode up thro' the 
body of the Church and quire. They rudely pluck down 
the table, and break the rail ; and afterwards carrying it to 
an ale-house, they set it on tire, and in that fire burn also 
the books of Common-Prayer, and all the singing-books 
belonging to the quire. They throw down the organs, and 
break the stories of the Old and New Testament, curiously 
cut in carved work, beautified with colours, and set round 
about the top of the stalls of the quire. -From thence they 
turn to the monuments of the dead. They begin with Bi- 
shop Fox's chapel, which they utterly deface. They demo- 
lish and overturn the monuments of Cardinal Beat/fort, son 
to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. They deface the 
monument of William of Wainjleet 1 Bishop likewise of 
Jf inchester, and the magnificent founder of Magdalen 

College, in Oxford. Amongst the acts of bounty and 

piety done by Richaid Fox, the 67th Bishop of this See, are 
reckoned the following. He covered the quire, the presby- 
tery, and the isles adjoining, with a goodly vault, and new 
glazed all the windows of that part of the Church; and 
caused the bones of such Kings, Frinces, and Vrelates^ as 
had been buried in this Church, and lay dispersed aud 
scattered in several parts of the Cathedral, to be collected, 
and put into several chests of lead, with inscriptions on each 
chest, whose bones lodged in them. These chests (to pre- 
serve them from rude and prophane hands) he caused to be 
placed on the top of a wall of exquisite workmanship, built 
by him, to inclose the presbytery : there (never to be re- 
moved, as a man might think, but by the last trump) did 
rest the boues of many Kings and Queens ; as of Alfredus, 
Edward us Senior, Eadredns, tiardicanutus, Emma the 
motheiv and Edward the Confessor, her son ; Kinig'tisstts, 
the first founder of the Cathedral of Winchester; Egbert, 
the first English Monarch, William Rufus, and others." 
See A pp.- No. XXII. 

Kk<2 



252 The Supplement. 

" With these, in the chests, were deposited the bones of 
many godly Bishops and Confessors, as of Birinus, Hedda, 
Swithimts, Frithestanus, S. Alphegus the Confessor, Sti- 
gandus, Wina, and others. But these monsters of men, to 
whom nothing is holy, nothing is sacred, did not stick to 
prophane and violate these cabinets of the dead, and scatter 
their bones all over the pavement of the Church. For on 
the north of the quire they threw down' the chests wherein 
were deposited the bones of the Bishops ; the like they did 
to the bones of William Bnfus, of Queen Emma, of Hardi- 
catmtus, and Edward the Confessor, and were going to 
practise the like impiety on the bones of all the rest of the 
West-Saxon kings. But the outcry of the people, detest- 
ing so great inhumanity, caused some of their commanders 
to come in amongst them, and to restrain their madness. 
But that devilish malice, which was not permitted to rage 
and overflow to the spurning and trampling on the bones of 
all, did satiate itself, even to a prodigious kind of wanton- 
ness, on those which were already in their power. And 
therefore, as if they meant (if it had been possible) to make 
those bones contract a posthumous guilt, by being now 
made passive instruments of more than heathenish sacrilege 
and prophaneness, those windows which they could not 
reach with their swords and muskets, or rests, they broke 
to pieces, by throwing at them the bones of Kings, Queens, 
Bishops, Saints, and Confessors : so that the spoil done in 
the windows will not be repaired for a thousand pounds. 
And now, having ransacked the Church, having defied God 
ia his own house, violated the urns of the dead, abused the 
banes, and scattered the ashes of deceased Monarchs, Bi- 
shops^ Saints, and Confessors, they return in triumph, 
bearing the spoils with them, viz. Common Prayer-Books, 
broken organ-pipes, and mangled pieces of the carved work 
abovementioned, containing some histories of both Testa- 
ments, Such were the trophies of this glorious victory I" 

Westminster, 

. " This Church, under the eye and immediate protection 
of the pretended Houses of Parliament, had its share in 
spoil and prophanation, as much as those Cathedrals which 
were more remote from them. For in July 1643, some sol- 
diers of Weshborne and Cacwood'a company were quartered 
in theAbby-Church, where (as the rest of our modern re- 



The Supplement. 253 

formers) they broke down the rail about the communion- 
table, and burnt it in the place where it stood. They broke 
down the organs, and pawned the pipes at several ale-houses 

for pots of ale. There remain yet two prophanations 

more of this Church, not to be passed over in silence. 

" The first was committed by Sir Robert Harlow, who 
broke down the altar-stone which stood before that goodly 
monument of Henri/ the Seventh. The stone was touch- 
stone, all of one piece; a rarity not to be matched, that we 
know of, in any part of the world. There it stood for many 
years, not for use, but only for ornament ; yet it did not 
escape the phrenzy of this man's ignorant zeal, for he broke 
it into shivers. 

" The second was committed on the 13th of December, 
1643, when the carcass of John Pym (as much as the *lice 
left of it) was brought into this Church, and, after a sermon 
preached by Stephen Marshall, Archflamen of the rebels, it 
was interred between the Earl of Dover's place of burial 
and the monument of Henry the Third, founder of this 
Church, 'Twas a pity that he, who had been the author of 
so much bloodshed, and so many calamities, under which 
the kingdom yet groans, and therefore deserved to have his 
death, not only with the transgressors and wiched, but to 
be buried with the burial of an ass, should, after his death, 
make his sepulcher amongst the honourable, and mingle 
his vulgar, lousy ashes, with those of Kings, Princes, and 
Nobles." 

Exeter. 

<l Having the Church in their possession, in a most puri- 
tanical beastly manner they make it a common jakes.— Over 
the communion-table, in fair letters of gold, was written 
the holy and blessed Name of Jesus : this they expunge, as 
superstitious and execrable. They tear the Books of 
Common-Prayer to pieces, and then burn them, with ex- 
ceeding great exultation and expressions of joy. They 
broke and defaced all the glass windows of the Churchy 
which cannot be repaired for many hundreds of pounds. 
They struck off the heads of all the statues on all the mo- 
numents in the Church, and pluckt down and defaced the 
statue of an ancient Queen, the wife oKEdwardthe Confessor, 
the first founder of this Church ; mistaking it for the statue 
of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God. So she was 
* N.B. Pym died of the lousy-evit 



254 The Supplement. 

styled by the Holy Catholic Church, many years before it 
was in danger to be voted blasphemy, in that committee, 
where learned Miles Corbet sate in the chair. They broke 
down the organs, and taking two or three hundred pipes 
with them, in a most scornful, contemptuous manner, went 
up and down the streets piping with them : and meeting 
some of the choristers of the Church, scoffiugly told them, 
Boys, we have spoiled your trade, you must go and sing hot 
pudding-pies" 

Peterborough. 

" This place hath suffered in so distinguished a manner 
for its loyalty, that we know not where to enter upon the 
narration of the same, except at the great west window, 
(where Cromwell's soldiers made their first breach and en- 
trance) which was adorned with variety of ecclesiastical 
history. ---From thence they presently hurried to the quire, 
where, according to their trade and custom in other places, 
they tore in pieces the service-books, pulled down the pulpit, 
with that black-mouth'd cry, Down mith the throne of 
Antichrist, down with it, even to the ground. And when 
some of the standers-by requested Cromwell that he would 
please to stay his soldiers from farther ruining and defacing 
the place, he replied, that they did God good service in that 
action. — But observe the wages that the divine justice re- 
pay'd one of them for their work. 

" When they had demolished the quire, espying in the 
roof, right over the communion-table, our Saviour pour- 
tray'd, coming in glory with his angels, and at the four 
corners, the four evangelists, one of them charged his mus^ 
ket to shatter them down, but by the rebound of his own 
shot, was struck blind. If he did his God good thereby, 
he did himself an ill turn, his wickedness falling on his 
own pate. He lay along while in that condition, and never 
recovered his former sight. 

" Not one monument in the Church escaped undefaced, 
no, not of the pious benefactors, nor those two fair tombs of 
Catharine, Queen Dowager of Spain, the repudiate of 
King Henry the Eighth, and Mary, Queen of Scots?* 

Thus far Mercurius Rusticus. To whose account 

of these lamentable puritanic depredations, we beg leave 
to subjoin 



The Supplement. 255 

"fD. Patrick's narrative of the rifling and defacing the 
Cathedral Church of Peterborough, in the year 1643. 

" In April, the aforesaid year, some rebel forces came to 
^ Mterborough, being- under the command of the afterwards 
^surper, Other Cromwell. These breaking open the 
^hurch, threw down and broke in pieces two organs that 
herein it. Then entering the choir, they tore in pieces all 
the Common Prayer-Books they could find, tearing the 
Apocrypha out of the Bible. Next they broke down all the 
seats, stalls, and wainscot, which was adorned with pas- 
sages of scripture, a Latin distich being in each seat, to de- 
clare the story. 

" The old JLeiger-Book of the Church being found there 
by one of these sacrilegious rebels, was redeemed by some 
person belonging to the Church, who said it was a Latin 
Bible. 

" Having defaced the choir, they broke down and burnt 
the rails about the communion-table, which they also threw 
down, took away the cloth on it, and a Bible and Common 
Prayer-Book in velvet covers, a silver-gilt bason and sil- 
ver candlesticks, which last were lost, the other things being 
restored by the command of Col. Hubbert. 

H In July following, another gang of rebels broke open 
the vestry, and carried off what they found there. Behind 
the communion-table there stood a curious piece of stone 
works, much admired, painted, and gilt, which rose up 
almost as high as the Church, in a row of three lofty spires, 
with other less spires growing out of each of them ; this 
they pulled down with ropes, and laid level with the 
ground. 

" Over this place, in the roof of the Church, in a large 
oval, yet to be seen, Was the picture of our Saviour seated 
on a throne, with the four Evangelists, and other Saints 
on each side. This they defaced by many musket shot 
made at it. 

" At Yaxley, a neighbouring town, these holy soldiers 
p-ss-ed in the font, and then baptized an horse and a mare, 
using the solemn words of baptism, and signing them with 
the sign of the cross. 

H When they had done all the other mischief they could 
at Peterborough) they fell to rifle the tombs and mouu- 

f Eng. Man. abr. Vol. I. p. 490. 



256 The Supplement. 

inents, tearing off the brass that was on -them, defacing the 
inscriptions, and breaking in pieces all the figures on them. 
Then they broke all the glass windows, because they were 
painted with passages of Scripture, and reckon'd some of 
the finest in England" Thus D. Patrick. — - See also D.. 
Heylin's Hist, of the Presbyterians^ pp. 450, 451, 452. 

We shall conclude our account of these Puritanic rava- 
ges, and put an end to the whole, with the following ob- 
servations. And, , 

First, we cannot help taking notice of the style of 
the author of this same Mercurius Rusticus, which is plainly 
perceived to be sufikiently acrimonious. And for the 
truth of this remark, we appeal to the following expressi- 
ons : — Outrageous impieties /— Schismatical fury !— Mon- 
strous reformation !— Monsters of men !— Devilish malice I - 
More than heathenish sacrilege and prophaneness, &c— -But 
the indelicacies of this writer may easily be accounted for, if 
not excused, when we consider them as the consequences 
and effects of an honest, well-meaning, and not illaudable 
zeal for the House of God, and the Royal Cause. 

Secondly, in his account of the prophauations committed 
in Winchester Cathedral, he entertains his reader, it must 
be confessed, with some very shocking circumstances ;, 
among which we may reckon the demolishing of, perhaps, 
some of the finest church-windows in Christendom, with the 
isones of Kings, Queens, Bishops, Confessors, and Saints, 
most wantonly and wickedly thrown at them ! — But in 
this, Cromwell and his partizans only imitated the wretched 
example of a famous lining of England, \vhose name we need 
not mention ; for it is but too well known by whose orders 
the bones of Archbishop Bechet {alias S. Thomas of Canter - 
-bury) were disinterred, burnt by an opprobrious hand, and 
the ashes tossed into the air, to be dispersed, like common 
dust, before the wind, as some say, or thrown into the river, 
as Cardinal Pallavicini and others report.— [Henricus Oc- 
iavus illius ossa, manu earnificis comburi jussit, cineres- 
que in fluvium projicL Card. Pal. Hist. Con. Trid. L. iv. 
p. 126.] 

Thirdly, if there had been regular and exact accounts, 
like those above, preserved, of the sacrilegious destroying 
of Churches under King Henry the Eighth, and his son 
Edward the Sixth, they might have filled large volumes, 
and many of them would immensely exceed what has here 



The Supplement. 257 

been recounted, in barbarity and prophaneness. Some 
hundreds of stately Churches were then not only abused, 
prophaned, and defaced, but thrown, down to the ground, 
and that by public authority. Nevertheless, this is still 
looked upon by many as a pious action, a blessed work, and 
whatnot; while the other (by far the less criminal) is de- 
scribed in the strongest energy of language, and painted in 
the most frightful colours ! Not a single circumstance is 
forgot ! No, not so much as the tearing of a Common 
Prayer-Book in pieces ! Yet neither D.Paske, D. Patrick, 
nor the author of Mercurius Rusticus, find fault with the 
horrid havock that was made of Consecrated Structures by 
Cromwell the First, and the Duke of Somerset; but both 
they and D. Heylin inveigh and exclaim most bitterly 
against a parcel of brutish soldiers and sacrilegious rebels, 
let loose upon them and their Churches by Cromwell the 
Second. 

Thus it is aversion or affection that, with some people, 
makes the same fact either good or bad! 

conclusion. 

" And thus we see who first began 
This monster Reformation. 
A set of vile, amphibious creatures, 
Of difFrent shapes and different natures. 
For, 'ere the civil wars broke out, 
Religion spawn'd a num'rous rout 
Of vermin, that from putrefaction 
Deriv'd their first and sole extraction; 
Who now, like toads in wet weather, 
Gender, and croak, and sprawl together/' 

Butler's Posthumous Works, p. 149. 




LI 



Kk Aung and Bhown, Printers, 38, Duke-titrevt 
Grosvenor-square, and 03, Paternoster*™ ». 



1 1 






I 






: ■ c •- ■ 

( «CT<CC< 



<^~ ; ci 



i3c^< 



c 

CL 

«:^£ 

vaC < :<: 

« ••< <^ 
« <1C 

«&V:.<- c 



<&.< C c 












oc «T~ 

<c<L 



<^<z - v;;;c_';'.- 

<T~<: <■ CC C!...< 



: c.ci 






4C£ *-- • - 



CSr- car 



d 



, «^c cc^..- 

C CCC '<s&. 

<c cgc<c: <^r 



■<.cc<: 



cc < 





<r 


c 


msiun 


<(cC 


C - 


c 


<: < 


«ec< 


" ' cfe 


,c 


<T^ 


■<SCC 


T co 


r-c 


• C^< 


<C<St 


r- r- 


c 


. C^-* 


CCcCi 


? C 


c:«« 


CCC 


- 




- <!>.«; 


caC 


c; 




CT-^- 


&C1 


-C§< 




Cc< 


<ZMCL 


-■ c: 




. Cjo 


■' CcC 


~ c- 




<^-c t 


c<c 


" <!--•<' 


<; 


.<r ,-. 


cc 


cc<^ 


c 


. 


cc 


■<&> 


< 


XI <C; 


7 <s<: 


<:< « 


<c 


c 


cc 


CC5? 


d 




<uC 


<Ccc 


<:: 


C« 


cc. 4 ^ 


C3 


c « . 

c- ; 




r-tw 


^ ^_ 


<^ ■ 






- 


cc ■■« 


: 


^ 




cc C 


"C3-- 


^r — " 


- 

■ 


cc C 


^c§r- 


^ 




^ - ^ 


<vrtC<0 


.CT 


C: c: 


<c_ V 


V s — 


• ~ 4T~ 


Vs(T rf"^ 


r«^ 








%< <L 


:o^ 




<G.v. *; 








" : C< ^^ 


' <"-C 


< 


_ C "' - 4ti 






^^^ 



- - 
■ 



<c '^::C. c 

C C 



CC< 



: c c^ 

c cc < 



•<r- <- '. 
<r c 
<r < 
c^ c 
cr < 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



<1 C'c-cr 



■^■'O <C:j<^ 



<: ■■< c < 

C < < c 

«c.y c c 

. 

c c ci'/ c 

CCriE .'.■ C« r 



< 



% 






• <y*r 



c 
c 

"< 

c 

<2 < <JK 



< i 

< « 



<< 


< 
VOL 




m 





«C: 



■■■*p~-^' 






r •■:.- 
. .40 

« 

CCC < * 

c <r "■•■ 

a 
c 



wm 



<3C < 
CC 



1 

dS*<c id < 



c 









< c 

ecSETC 












